(Sorrel Downer, FT, 2007)
Friends who go to spas recommend them for their vast, softly lit pools, the thick robes, the service and the sleek designer loungers with armrest control panels. However, they tend to be vague about the treatments, which are generally described in bland terms, such as “relaxing”. While shiatsu and rolfing may work wonders on muscle aches and blockages, it’s the decor and ambience that really has these stressed urban aesthetes checking into deluxe spas. And the people who design these take their roles very seriously.
“A true spa is a place one goes to for rejuvenation, to refocus life and habits into something healthier,” says Carl Ettensperger of spa design company, C&C Studio. “Sometimes designers are taken out of the picture when it comes to details such as art, artefacts, uniforms, graphics, products and even the selection of flowers. To have an influence, to ensure others understand the complete package we are trying to create is important. I have horror stories of therapists coming into a spa I’ve created wearing what one would describe as a nurse’s uniform.”
A perfect holistic ambience is never accidental. “Service is the key,” says Jane Quinn, managing director of Per Aquum spas. But service and treatments are just parts of the big spa show. “Spa is often very much a state of mind and it’s important to make guests feel comfortable and nurtured in every way possible. However, subtle design features – using the most luxurious cotton, the way your towels are draped on your body, ambient lighting, temperature, music – do make a difference on a subconscious level,” says Quinn.
But as spas up the ante, spa-goers are also expecting more. “Spa-goers have become more sophisticated and demanding in terms of treatments, programming, service, and – with so many excellent spas continually raising the bar in terms of design – definitely ambience,” says Susie Ellis from Luxury SpaFinder Magazine. “It’s not just about mind-blowing opulence or design. Savvy spa enthusiasts really appreciate ambient elements that contribute to health and well-being.
The overall experience is often influenced strongly by ambience. Coloured light panels, which can affect rejuvenation by altering mood, fit the bill as do water walls that can add to relaxation.” So even if the treatments are “ancient”, the environment needs to be super-cool and ultramodern.
Water, fundamental to spas since time immemorial, has to be used in new ways: lit from below with fibre-optic lights, filled with sound waves, gushing from deluge showers. Spas are basically great theatre and, as with any big show, lighting is used to create and manipulate mood. “It’s by no means an add-on,” says Nick Hoggett of dpa lighting consultants. “It’s used to enhance the personality of a particular spa, helps towards the fundamental goal of creating a space that is refreshing and relaxing. The scent, softness and warmth of candles is excellent on skin colours – people look good when they come out of treatments, so they feel good. Candles are used well in the far eastern spas, like the Banyan Tree spas. Water over a dark background can be used as a reflecting pool, as at Riad Farnatchi, Marrakech, with candles around the edge. On a rippling surface, that’s thought-provoking and mesmerising – it produces a nice state of mind. Lighting can also be used to create a more contemporary experience, for example, by giving a relaxation room a back-lit ceiling with gentle colour changes.”
Colour therapists believe exposure to different colours with their specific frequencies can correct physical imbalances. At the very least it’s understood they affect us psychologically, so great deliberation is involved in choosing what colour to paint the walls. For instance, the Molton Brown Spa at the Killarney Plaza, Kerry, mixes “fresh air” spaces with enveloping enclosures, night brown with low lighting designed to help the brain power crank down. Many of the elements that go into creating spa ambience, such as aromas, work on a subliminal level. Molton Brown’s gels, candles and scrubs smell expensive and modern but have nicely nostalgic associations.
That’s subjective but apparently it’s backed up by science. For example, the inspiring wild-indigo bath and shower gel, the company says, contains “tephrosin, which helps stimulate the production of beta endorphins within the body and creates positive feelings”. A similar mix of subjective association and scientific research lies behind the choice of music. Surf, aeolian harps, murmuring monks and temple bells are de facto, deemed the most conducive to relaxation. Having endured a water therapy session to Katie Melua, I concede it could be worse. Some of those responsible for producing this sort of music claim to create waves of therapeutic ambient sounds that harmonise with our very essence. Record label BioChords says its CDs are composed and engineered specifically to reduce stress and insomnia (ie induce sleep) and are “embedded with carefully selected frequencies that stimulate specific brain waves shown in studies to improve every facet of daily life”, which is a nice side benefit from a quick spa visit.
Deployed in unison, these tricks of the trade transform a spa building into a perfectly harmonised, sensuous space from which, after a week of treatments and the exchange of substantial amounts of cash, perfectly harmonised, sensuous people emerge. Or that’s the idea. As spas have merged boundaries with hotels, they have also influenced hotel design, not only in the addition of spa suites and wet rooms but in the better use of sound, lighting and space.
This, in turn, has infiltrated the homes of regular spa users in the form of temple bells, room sprays, Japanese gardens, meditation areas and burbling water features all of which, I’m assured, create a sense of calm – even in London. So could it be that this expertly orchestrated spa ambience is as beneficial as spa treatments themselves? “Let’s put it this way,” says Ellis. “A relaxing, soothing ambience can make treatments more effective and poor ambience can make them less so. And ambience can be a true healing element in and of itself.”
