Tetusa Oasis Thermal Resort / by ENOTA

Tetusa Oasis Thermal Resort is an extensive wellness and medical facility set in the midst of low-rise housing area in coastal town Cesme in Turkey. In this well known leisure town with a long history of thermal water exploitation the decision was made to enrich the town’s offer with new central thermal complex including spa, water park, hotel, medical prevention center, elderly care facility and some other supporting programs.

First glance at urban regulations for location in question reveals that the square footage needed for the program considerably exceeds the footage that can be placed above the ground. We found the solution in special design feature. The entire program is organized in circular building blocks wrapping around an inner atrium. The inner side of atrium is then deepened allowing sunlight to come to underground levels. The same principle is also applied to semi circular parts of building on outer side where the surrounding terrain is used to hide the view on extra levels.
When adding additional levels to the building the whole building block is adapted to fit to sloping terrain. With introducing also some additional height difference to allow views from the atrium towards the surroundings the basic building block gets very recognizable and attractive shape. The building as a whole is designed by repetition and multiplication of basic building blocks. In that way different programs are organized around separated outer spaces helping to differentiate the parts of the building. Every block is again modified according to terrain. The blocks are then connected to each other forming the entire complex.

The inner atriums that are the result of functional organization of needed program are together with attractive roofscape also one of the main design elements of the buildings. Visually separated but connected through the inner program the atriums form some kind of numerous oases where each of them hosts different program.

Expression of the entire complex is very uniform. Atriums and half atriums are those who define the outer spaces of separate programs. The twisted roofs that are adapting to hilly terrain are at the same time very attractive and are helping to diminish the presence of the complex in the surrounding.

TETUSA OASIS

ABB LEAF Awards, Future Hospitality Building of the Year winner
Architizer A+ Awards, Unbuilt Hospitality finalist
The Plan Awards, Hospitality shortlisted

project Tetusa Oasis Thermal Resort
type commission
year 2015
status in progress

size 58.700 m²
client Tetusa Company
location Cesme, Turkey

architecture ENOTA
project team Dean Lah, Milan Tomac, Tjaž Bauer, Nuša Završnik Šilec, Zoran Beloševac, Polona Ruparčič, Peter Karba, Goran Djokić

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