Underground waters: design of a spa for a Gloucestershire hotel makes it an inconspicuous part of a newly designed landscape. (Interior Design).The spa, designed by de Matos Storey Ryan, is part of a new hotel created out of Cowley Manor, a restored mansion in Gloucestershire. Before being acquired for conversion in 1999, the manor had been an old people's home old people's home old n (esp) (Brit) → maison f de retraite old people's home old n → Altersheim nt . Said to date from 1674, * the original house was rebuilt in the Italianate style in the latter part of the nineteenth century by George Somers Admiral Sir George Somers (1554-1610) was a British naval hero. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of John Somers, his first fame came as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston against the Spanish navy in 1595. Clarke and later extended by R. A. Briggs. Fifty or so years of institutional occupation after the war rather diminished its grandeur, stripped the interior of character and took its toll on splendid gardens. Apart from the spa's function as a health centre, which adds to the hotel's appeal and prestige, it is also part of a larger scheme to restore dignity and order to the manor's setting. Land to the north of the building undulates away to a valley and the architects have taken advantage of the undulations to make the spa an unobtrusive part of the landscape. At the same time, it has been conceived as part of a sequence of new garden spaces replacing the north garden which, over time, had lost its original form. The sequence terminates on the north in the spa's enclosed courtyard and partly submerged building, set into the slopes of the land. The spa's plan was determined by orientation and the need to catch the sun. Containing an indoor pool, changing rooms
n. 1. An accessory item of equipment or dress. Often used in the plural. 2. Military equipment other than uniforms and weapons. Often used in the plural. 3. of a modern health centre, the building forms the northern edge of a southerly stone-lined courtyard. Embraced on south and east by retaining walls of cast stone, it has a brimming outdoor pool and terrace and is edged on the west by a broad walkway planted with bamboo. Allusions to local Cotswold character appear in material and finish of retaining walls that overlap towards the north-western corner of the complex. Forming the western boundary of the courtyard and disappearing into the interior of the building, a big rubble wall refers to the traditional limestone structures of the area (St Mary's church in Cowley, dating from c1200, has a rubble stone nave). The remaining wall is of pigmented concrete and L-shaped, retaining the limestone hill on north and west. Where it is visible, the pigment has been coloured to resemble Cotswold stone Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic limestone quarried in many places the Cotswold Hills in the south midlands of England. When weathered the colour of buildings made or faced with this stone is often described as 'honey' or 'golden'. . After crossing the bamboo garden, the visitor follows the rubble wall as it disappears inside the building and curves around to form a kind of gazebo gazebo Lookout in the form of a turret, cupola (small, lanternlike dome), or garden house set on a height to give an extensive view. Few late-18th- and 19th-century rustic gazebos survive, but 17th-century turrets built up in an angle of the garden wall are not uncommon. . Retractable re·tract v. re·tract·ed, re·tract·ing, re·tracts v.tr. 1. To take back; disavow: refused to retract the statement. 2. glass doors onto the courtyard and a rooflight creates an intimate space full of light and reflection where visitors can sit and order drinks from a bar. In contrast to the luminous courtyard outside, the indoor pool has a darker grotto-like character under a roof planted with lavender. Inside, walls and pool, striped with luminance The amount of brightness, measured in lumens, that is given off by a pixel or area on a screen. For example, dark red and bright red would have the same chrominance, but a different luminance. from a long skylight, are lined with Welsh slate. Immersed in the pool you can look through a glass wall into the landscape. Ancillary rooms for changing, treatments and exercise are buried underground and skylit. Externally, their presence is marked by coloured cones around the rooflights which, like pieces of sculpture in the landscape, in turn create a playground for children. * Buildings of England: Gloucessershire: The Cotswolds. By David Verey, edited by Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England . Published by Penguin Books, 1970. Architect de Matos Storey Ryan, London Project architects Angus Morrogh-Ryan, Jonathan Storey, Jose Esteves Jose "Joe" Esteves is the mayor of Milpitas, California. He is ethnically mixed, with both Asian and Latino ancestry. He was born and raised in Dagupan City, Pangasinan in the Philippines. de Matos Photographs David Grandorge, 3, 4, 5, 6 Morley von Sternberg, 1, 2 |
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