Transitory escapes from the mundane turmoil of the hasty contemporary life are not only coveted but deemed almost necessary for well-being. Spas and wellness retreats have lately become popular venues for brief sojourns in peace. The design semantics of spas, however, are observed to subsume some common characteristics: a balanced colour palette (not too light or too dark), strong connections with outdoor areas and landscapes, natural materials and, oftentimes, rustic visuals; luxury bathhouses and spas, more often than not, abide by a language of antiquity. Departing from conventional models, New York-based studio Rockwell Group reimagines a dark and futuristic ambience for Bathhouse Flatiron in Manhattan, New York.

The 3252 square metres luxury spa and banya is conceived to redefine the spa experience, diverting it away from cliched notions and design components. The Bathhouse presents a carefully curated amalgamation of contemporary recovery practices, engaging environments and immersive experiences in a sleek and modern shell. Marking the second outpost of the luxury spa brand in New York, the first in Manhattan, the project features a wide array of amenities—from thermal pools and saunas to marble hammams—all encased in a three-level architectural chassis evocative of futuristic relics from the past.

Founded by David Rockwell and helmed by David and partners Shawn Sullivan and Greg Keffer, the interdisciplinary architecture and design firm has built an oeuvre of elevated experiences contrived through the synergy of theatre, performance and architecture. Bathhouse Flatiron, while imbibing the fundamentals of their practice, is designed around the idea of the ‘Hero’s Journey.’ The architects and interior designers draw inspiration from “a common trope from mythology that involves a hero who embarks on an epic journey or quest, encounters challenges with a decisive apex and returns home transformed by the adventure of personal growth.” From the reception to the treatment rooms, every component—portal-like corridors, lighting design that induces anticipation and furniture resembling monoliths—augments this narrative. The visitors embark on a journey of recovery through interior design featuring dramatic light and shadow and a muted material palette including travertine, fluted glass, stone, concrete, tile and metals with a patina finish.

The guests’ experience is initiated as they enter the Bathhouse through the ground floor lobby. Within a futuristic frame subsuming recurring portals of an illuminated flute glass, the reception desk made out of two types of travertine sits heavily as a boulder. At the other end, a black stone wall holds a vertical beacon of light - a “light at the end of the tunnel”. As the guests descend a compact black stair into a vestibule with a mural by Dean Barger, through this threshold, they transition into the locker rooms at the first subterranean level.

Through the portals, the designers achieve visual rhythm and clusters of changing areas; stone benches complement the desired milieu of the space. As the guests exit the locker rooms, they emerge into the lounge and cafe design—a dimly lit space for relaxing and chatting with friends. The restaurant design is completed with low lounge furniture design—including custom banquette seating—and seats along a travertine and limestone bar. Green ceramic pendants and pebble-shaped decorative pendants equalise the weighty design language with subtle dynamism and lightness.

Upon descending to the second subterranean level, the guests encounter a series of pool designs and treatment rooms. Six plunge pools are lit in different tones of blue (cooler to warmer) indicating their various temperatures; many pools feature large pyramidal volumes in metallic sheen hanging over them. Surrounding the pools, heated black stone hammam benches sit atop a black tiled floor. The saunas and the steam room take the periphery of the space, contrived as stepped pyramids in horizontal black concrete panels. “Combined with the pools, these small building objects create the feel of the remnants of a rediscovered civilisation,” reads the official release.

The guests can choose from a range of sauna experiences offered in the Bathhouse. A ceremonial sauna is clad in cedar and surrounded by stepped bench seating. While the heaters are illuminated through cove lights and downlights, the central heater appears as an altar. In this space of recovery, the Sauna Masters perform Aufguss, a sensory experience defined by scented oils, music and heat. In the steam room, on the other hand, the atmosphere is guided by a Danish three-dimensional tile, a modular system enveloping the space and strips of light in the blue-grey tile walls. The Banya is the hottest Russian-style sauna dressed in green-purple slate tiles, a black stone furnace, and gentle light emanating from glowing strips on the bottom benches. Vertical hemlock wood panels are reminiscent of the height of a forest in the infrared sauna; a window injects silhouette views of lush plants in the room.

A dark, mysterious corridor ushers the guests into the core of the treatment rooms. A small lounge area features another pyramid suspended over a salt pool, a travertine gradient feature wall, black-stained wood, benches and soft seating. The underside of the pyramid is covered in black mirrors with 150 fibre optic cables to create an illusion of infinity. The ‘inner sanctum’ of the Bathhouse or the scrub room is a cave within a cave. “Lilac marble tables float under a ceiling with cove lights gently bathing the walls. Showerheads offer a chance to rinse off, while the adjacent massage rooms are clad in a warm brown clay lime finish to provide a back-to-nature and cocooning aesthetic,” the official release explains.

The Rockwell Group, with a knack for experimentation, morphs an empty concrete skeleton—the canvas for the project—into a three-levelled hospitality design of serenity, mystery and anticipation. As the guests manoeuvre from one room to the next through corridors expressing a spectrum of emotions through lights and shadows, their spa experience is enhanced with a sensory treat—a bathhouse is designed through the lens of a futuristic, almost otherworldly, adventure, culminating in a cocoon aiming to cradle the ‘Hero’s Journey.’