Wellbeing and its spatial experience: development of SPA design and contemporary spa spaces

Wellbeing as a notion gains importance day by day hand in hand with the status of healthiness. World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" on the one hand; on the other hand, Global Wellness Institution (GWI, 2017) stresses wellness as intellectual, religious and medical movements and modern concept with ancient roots beginning with the Ayurveda treatments followed by Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ancient Greek doctrines, Roman Medicine and movements in United States and Europe in 19th century. Today, wellbeing and being healthy are the ultimate goals that are difficult to endure due to increasing stress level in modern world, working environment with high-intensity and expectations from civilized human. As a result of these, people need to have treatments and experiences to relax and stay strong. In this content, spa spaces compel attention. As the word spa literally refers to the abbreviation of sanus (salus/ sanitas) per aquam that means health coming from water in Latin. The relation between human beings and water starts in the mother womb and continues in many forms. People are always attracted to water and this interest originates from different aspects like need for bathing, religious and spiritual rituals and the belief to curative powers of water. Bathing can take place where water exist as bathtub, shower or even river, sea, ocean, lake. While human baths throughout the history, the forms of bathing shaped according to different reigns, beliefs and politics. Thus, personal and public bathing spaces emerged in relation to these routines and rethorics . In this thesis study, well-being and its spatial experience and spa design development and contemporary spa spaces, further to that, the emerging role of Turkish Hamam spatiality and its atmospherical penetration in contemporary spa design is also examined and discussed. Thesis consist of five main chapters: In first chapter; the purpose of thesis, literature review and hypothesis are stressed. To comprehend the definition of spa, the construction of spa spaces and the history behind these spaces and experiences literature study is done. In addition to that, a future projection is stressed throughout the evolution of spa in the context of hypothesis. In second chapter; the roots of bathing need, spa culture and their spatial typologies and the emergence of them are examined. In order to fully understand, spa rituals throughout the history beginning with Indus Valley, following to that Ancient Greek, Romans, Asia and Ottoman Empire Eras are discussed; further to that, the essential thresholds are examined in a timeline. In third chapter; planning a spa is analyzed deeply. In this content; spa types, determination of spa concept, spa design principals and obligations, spa components and spatial requirements, layout needs and user flows are revealed. In fourth chapter; under the indications and inputs of previous chapters, the spatial aspects and criteria that affect spa experience are specified. In this content, since in modern world, the boundaries between spa types are getting ambigous and the spas are evolved into "days spas" where users can reach any time they want and "destination spas" where users need to plan a journey to use in practical use; one destination spa in Turkey (Canyon Ranch Kaplankaya) and one resort hotel spa outside of Turkey (Joali Maldives), one city hotel spa outside of Turkey (Villa Magna Madrid) and one city hotel in Turkey (Fairmont Quasar Istanbul) are dismantled in relation to defined criteria set. In considerations of these evaluations, the increasing demand to Turkish Hamam is observed and stressed. In fifth chapter, concluding remarks and future projections are discussed. In this part; in addition to the evaluations and sectional results, it is stressed that the significance of Turkish hamam is getting more and more important gradually with its flexible and corvertible spatial aspects and utilization of spatial characteristics of Turkish Hamam emerges as an increasing demand in the design of contemporary spa ambient, while this find out is stressed and the reasons are briefly discussed on the final chapter.