An oasis of well-being in the Gulf of Trieste, among stone surfaces with light tones, panoramic terraces, and large windows.
By Sabrina Sciama
“The idea of wellness, for me, has always been linked to the idea of nature, its colors, its materials. Man has always benefited when surrounded by these”.
Alberto Apostoli has completed in over twenty years of work at least 1000 projects, including hotels, offices, wellness centers, shops, residential complexes, and villas. The common thread of his design research is natural stone, “a living material, crossed by textures and veins, the surface of which can be worked in various ways having different tactile specifications reflecting the light in equally different ways. Sensory showers, pools, waterfalls, salt caves are spaces in which a person internally imagines a unique context and the stone often allows one to reinterpret it”.
One of the last projects concluded by Studio Apostoli, Portopiccolo Spa, located in Sistiana, a new wellness location overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, is already an international landmark in terms of architectural quality, attention to sustainability, and services offered.
Each of the three building levels corresponds to a specific vocation: the ground floor belongs to the collective sphere with its fan-shaped structure that houses the reception, opening itself to the conference rooms, children’s room, hairstyling studio, training pool, and changing rooms.
As one ascends to the upper two floors, the environment becomes increasingly intimate: on the first floor, there is a large indoor and outdoor pool with its grand window open to the landscape. In this space, the protagonists are water features and hydro-massage beds, tub with sensory showers, a Kneipp path, hammam (tepidarium, calidarium, and frigidarium), bio-sauna, and Finnish sauna.
There is even a salt cave where one can inhale micronized iodine or immerse oneself in the saline tank. At the first level, there is a gym, bar, restaurant-bar-banqueting area, and a modular conference room that continues outside, wherefrom the garden outfitted with sun loungers, one can enjoy the view of the coast.
The last level is dedicated to the Beauty Spa, which offers beauty treatment cabins and the Panoramic Spa Suite for couples. The Suite, also a private spa, offers a kneipp path, ice waterfall, sauna, steam bath, sensory showers, a relaxation room, a cold tub, and a salt pan for iodine treatments.
An idea of luxury that was proclaimed winner of the “2020 World Luxury Spa Awards” in the “Luxury Destination Spa category.” But, above all, an idea that is the model of sustainability, where emotion, experience, rituality, and well-being combine with low energy consumption solutions and renewable sources.
Credits Photo: Lorenzo Crasnich
