Gleichenberg Thermal Bath / JSA

Architects: Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor
Location: Bad Gleichenberg, Austria
Design Period: 2005-2007
Construction period: 2005-2008
Client: HCC/Kappa
Project Architects: Olav Jensen(pl), Børre Skodvin (pl), Ane Forfang, Carl Patrik Larsson, Helge Lunder, Minna Riska, Dagfinn Sagen, Thomas Knigge, Torunn Golberg, Torstein Koch, AnneLise Bjerkan
Collaborating Local Architect: Domenig Wallner, Graz
Landscape: Kim Wilkie
Budget: 1.000.000 EURO (US $31.52 millions)
Constructed Area: 17,500 sqm
Photographs: JSA

The project is situated in a protected park and consist of a treatment area with about 50 different rooms for medical treatments, a four star hotel with several different restaurants and cafes, and a public thermal bath for the patients and other guests.

The waiting areas in the middle of the treatment rooms for the patients are shaped around courtyards allowing sun and views to the trees, as to give the patients the impression of waiting in the park itself. A full treatment might last for several days and can consist of a number of different treatments, like different types of massages and baths in smaller private treatment rooms, a visit to a cold room with minus 110 degrees Celsius etc.

Between these treatments the patients wait in the open and transparent waiting areas where the park is always close. One of the main aims of the architecture has been to un-institutionalize the architecture, make it resemble a hospital in as few ways as possible. The interior has been designed by an advertising bureau.