Generalife SPA - Granada - Spain

Project idea

The site is located on the hills of Serra Nevada In Andalusia, Granada - Spain, a few meters ahead of the historical San Cristobal Mirador and the Alhambra.

The site used to be a Patio Garden for an ancient palace. After its degrdation, the locals managed to turn the site into a public space.
The site was not very well maintained, the vegetation was very degraded and it was less and less visited. The idea is to revive the old aesthetic function of the Islmaic Gardens, using the materiality of minerals, the aquatic and the vegetal.

- [ ] The volume is adapted to maximize views, it was carved to suite the site slope.

The basic stratification of the program leaves space for green terraces to develop, reaching the panoramic view over the Albaicìn (البَيّازين), the historical moorish neighborhood; a declared World Heritage Site along with Alhambra.
The monumental vegetalized façade blends into the site. It borrows by its openings the architectural language of the traditional physical surrounding built in the islamic period.

The contemporary gesture of rotating the elliptical arches reduces the impact of the monumental concrete volume; giving more porosity and visibility to the mass.

Youtube Animation of the Project : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGgzrkVp4DA

Project description

The Underground:
The Hammam (turkish bath) is burried under the slope, divided to 3 spaces/ The cool temperature place, the medium, and the hot.
The Slope on top is used to garnish the existant garden, it serves as terraces that climb to the top of the building; where we can fiNd the stairs that guide to the cafe on the first floor of the spa, and that guides toward the more elevated Panoramic views of the city.




Aquatic:

The old site still holds an old basin, left from the time when the palace was still on.
The deduction is that it was the main fountain of the old demolished patio, usually found in islamic houses. It directs the axiality of the volume.
The idea was to rebuild a second basin on the sloped terraces that projects into the medium-temperature turkish bath space. The basin lower slab is a transparent slab. It reflects the caustics of the waters when in contact with sunlight into the space beneath.
This ambiance gives the feeling of being in a totally underground aquatic world.


Islamic:
The arches are duplicated, reacting in a contemporary way (modified ellipses - Grasshopper/Rhino booleans) to the aesthetics of the surrounding old façades from the Islamic Moorish Period.
The moucharabieh covering the top of the patio ornaments the space beneath ( distribution patio/and relaxation space) and gives it its ephemeral beauty.
So you can come out of the turkish bath and have a sense of calmness.

Stratification:
The program (as seen in the second sheet) is stratified to facilitate the management of space inside
giving more intimacy to the Turkish bath, and opening more views to the bath thubs, spa pools, massage alcoves and the cafe on the first floor.

Monumentality:
The usage of white concrete gives the volume its energy.
The only façade that has visual exposure is the one facing the city.
It merges in a contemporary way with its surroundings.

Technical information

The access to the site is a maze, the reward is the natural bathing in the SPA.
The site used to be a Patio Garden for an ancient palace. After its degrdation, the locals managed to turn the site into a public space.
The site was not very well maintained, the vegetation was very degraded and it was less and less visited.
The master plans shows the vegetation used to amplify the old funciton of the space
The load bearing structure of the building is a cast reinforced concrete framework, every wall is superposed and repeated depending on the surface need.