Therme Vals Explorative Model

At the beginning of my third-year undergraduate studies, we were tasked to make a group sectional model of a building that plays with light and space. A building was set for each group by our tutor, my group was given the Therme Vals By Peter Zumthor.

These were the three individual images that I took of our group model that I felt represented the Therme Vals use of light.

The space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modeled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view.

Completed in 1996, Therme Vals is widely regarded as one of the most important projects of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Built over the only thermal springs in Switzerland's Graubünden Canton, the hotel and spa are celebrated for offering a sensory experience of hot and cold, light and shadow, and materiality.

The building is partially submerged into the hillside and is covered by a grass roof, making it almost invisible from behind. Its walls are made from a locally quarried quartzite stone, built up in layers to create multi-toned stripes. Windows are set within wide recesses, revealing the unusual depth of these walls. These stone surfaces continue inside the building but are contrasted with other materials, ranging from homogeneous concrete to polished terrazzo.

The fascination for the mystic qualities of a world of stone within the mountain, for darkness and light, for light reflections on the water or in the steam saturated air, pleasure in the unique acoustics of the bubbling water in a world of stone, a feeling of warm stones and naked skin, the ritual of bathing – these notions guided the architect. Their intention to work with these elements, to implement them consciously and to lend them to a special form was there from the outset. The stone rooms were designed not to compete with the body, but to flatter the human form (young or old) and give it space…room in which to be.

Further Images that I took of the sectional model.