A levitating coastal spa complex and a sports complex with a football pitch on its roof are among the leisure winners at the Architectural Review MIPIM Future Project Awards, which were announced today (15 March) in Cannes, France.

The awards – judged by industry professionals and commentators – celebrate the most exciting unbuilt or incomplete designs by international practices across ten project categories.

The Fuente Santa Hot Spring Baths by Spanish studio gpy arquitectos won the prize in the Retail and Leisure category, while UFCSPA Campus Igara by Brazil’s OSPA Arquitetura e Urbanismo took the Sport and Stadiums prize.

The judges hailed the spa for its “striking and unusual flowing forms.” The building is imagined as a bridge seemingly hovering over a volcanic, coastal landscape in La Palma Island, Spain.

Commissioned by Cabildo de La Palma, the unusual building has been designed to ensure minimal impact on the fragile, protected area, with the architects creating a ‘synthesis’ between architecture, infrastructure and landscape.

The spa’s public baths are designed as an ‘unfolded pool,’ creating a new, suspended shoreline, while inside, the common areas of the thermal water circuit incorporate the volcanic landscape.

The UFCSPA Campus Igara imagines a fully-equipped sports facility for a Brazilian university with a pitch and running track on the roof to save space and create public integration.

Other leisure winners at the awards include NBBJ Design for their entry to the Reinvent Paris competition, which was named best mixed-use project, and Dutch studio Mecanoo for their Three Cultural Centers & One Book Mall project for Shenzhen, China.

The overall winner of the 2016 Best Future Project Award will be named on 17 Match at a special awards ceremony at MIPIM, the global property trade show.

Brazilian architects OSPA design rooftop football pitch

Architectural Review Future Project Awards - winners announced