For the Olympic Spa Hotel in Val di Fassa, northern Italy, NOA designs a new extension according to a sustainable model, aiming to enhance and integrate the facilities with the surrounding landscape. From the new rooms nestled in the Alpine meadow, with terraces and internal patios, to the surprising sauna overlooking the forest, to be reached by an aerial path, this project camouflages the new, plays with the profile of the mountains and gives guests the emotion of a sincere bond with nature. Photography by Alex Filz.

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Adding new spaces and functions to a mountain hotel without affecting the harmony with the landscape, on the contrary, creating a better integration with the surroundings: this is the guiding theme of the project realised by NOA for the Olympic Spa Hotel, in Vigo di Fassa, with a tradition of hospitality dating back to 1963. The plan to expand the current premises with an annex and a new sauna was an opportunity to define a ‘mimetic’ and sustainable intervention model, which will allow the hotel to grow and offer its guests an even more exciting immersion in the beautiful Dolomite scenery.

The key idea in NOA’s design was to shift the centre of gravity of the hotel from the provincial road, which most of the rooms hitherto overlooked, to the slope behind it, which slowly declines, turning into a forest, until it reaches the Avisio stream. Thus, the project envisaged the construction of the new ten rooms along the slope, partially buried and connected to the hotel by an underground passage. The sauna, on the other hand, is a separate wooden building, located on the edge of the forest, in an elevated position facing the treetops and accessible via an atmospheric aerial pathway. The emphasis is on direct contact with nature, which is also supported by the used materials, by the façade design that plays with the mountain skyline, by the terraces and the special interior patios embedded in the larger rooms.

Project name: Olympic Spa Hotel
Typology: Hotel
Location: San Giovanni di Fassa – Vigo, Trentino (Italy)
Client: Pellegrin family
Intervention: Architecture & Interior Design
Construction start: September 2021
Completion: January 2023
Project volume: 5,100 m3
Net surface area: 1,160 m2
Original text: Laura Ragazzola
Photographs: Alex Filz