Architect Alberto Apostoli is designing a new four-level spa for the Formentin Hotel, which is set to open next year. A historic thermal hotel built in 1911, the Formentin Hotel is located in the centre of Abano Terme, an ancient thermal area located between Verona and Venice, where natural thermal water flows to the surface at 87°C, delivering about 300 litres of water per minute.

Apostoli has taken inspiration from the Aurora Borealis and the icebergs of the Northern seas to create a spa of contrasts. Northern Lights have been recreated with the use of a fabric that integrates special optical fibres, while “icebergs” have been created based on a design by Studio Apostoli and made of sintered expanded polystyrene covered with resin.

The 840sq m (9,042sq ft) spa will also include a swimming pool on the ground floor; a thermal area with Turkish bath, sauna, ice waterfall, emotional showers, outdoor whirlpool, changing rooms and relaxation room on the first floor; treatment rooms – including a couple’s cabin, Spastream cabin, three individual treatment rooms, and a double treatment cabin with Vitalis bath tub – on the 2nd floor, and a terrace on the 3rd floor.

“The hot-cold and water-fire combinations have always been the basis of well-being,” Apostoli told Spa Business. “For the Formentin Hotel spa, I wanted to mark this contrast, creating a Nordic environment in opposition to the sauna and the Turkish bath. So I thought about the icebergs and the Aurora Borealis, symbolically recreated through an illuminated fabric. The result is an environment that provides emotional cold – a cold that warms the spirit of the spa guests.”

The spa is scheduled to open in April 2020.