The thermal baths "Termas de Tiberio", located at the foot of the Aragonese Pyrenees, is a project developed in 2007 by Moneo Brock Studio. The vast program is incorporated into a single volume of sinuous forms that, despite being massive, does not cause any visual impact on the natural environment.

In the project by Moneo Brock Studio there is a clear desire to integrate the building into its environment, the volume is half buried and seems to emerge from the mountain. The facade's glass blocks, specifically designed for the project, reflect the gray light of the Pyrenees, adding the building to the natural and built environment.

Description of the project by Moneo Brock Studio

The Baths at Panticosa are located in the dramatic Valle del Tena of Aragon, Spain, where mountain peaks near the project site hold snow throughout the year. Waterfalls, rivers and streams cut the surface of the mountains and the valleys, while underground the aquifer mixes with thermal springs from deep beneath the surface of the earth.

In designing the Baths building we have sought a balanced response to the natural setting on one hand and to the urbanized context on the other. The structure is built up to and, in places, into the side of the mountain, integrating its volume with that of its natural setting. To its neighbors, a church and a hotel, the building design offers a neutral response, moderately acknowledging the traditional space-making of these rectilinear blocks disposed orthogonally to one another. A series of curving walls or “ribbons” define the building’s exterior form. These “ribbons” spring from the mountainside and terminate equally, while between them are green roof surfaces in a series of terraces, forming extensions of the mountain landscape. This ‘watery’ shape gives a reduced appearance of bulk, and results in a structure that is thoroughly integrated into its immediate environment.

The program is complex, and the municipal zoning limits require that much of the floor area be located underground, making the provision of natural light and views of the surroundings to the maximum area of the plan a design priority. The carving out of the building volume and the strategic location of windows serve to connect the interior spaces with the mountain landscape, giving the visitor a series of orientating cues, while the overlapping ribbons envelop and blend the spaces as they weave through the interior. On the main level are the pools and saunas, with one exterior and three interior hot pools, Turkish baths, cold baths, ice baths, saunas, showers, foot baths, relaxing areas, and juice bars.

The façade is built of a custom-made glass block, trapezoidal in section, acid etched both inside and out. This block’s form was designed to accentuate the curvilinear aspect of the façade, the overlapping of each block course over the one below creating a shadow line that reiterates the planimetric curve of the façade.

Read more
Read less

More information

Label
Architects
Text
Belén Moneo, Jeff Brock.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Architect in charge
Text
Iñigo Cobeta.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Project management
Text
Belén Moneo, Jeff Brock, Iñigo Cobeta.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Collaborators
Text
Silvia Fernández, David Goss, Mathias Schútte, Andrés Barrón, Benjamín Llana, Brenda Moczygemba, Eduardo Vivanco, Bárbara Silva, Carlos Revuelta, María Pierres, Sandra Formigo, Andrea Caputo, Spencer Leaf, Clara Moneo.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Client
Text
Aguas De Panticosa.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Location
Text
Panticosa (Huesca).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text
2002 (assignment), May 2005 (beginning of works), December 2007 (ending of works).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Surface
Text
8.500 m² (total floor area).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Gardening and Landscape
Text
Belén Moneo, Jeff Brock, Isaac Escalante (CES Landscape Architecture).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Interiors design
Text
Belén Moneo, Jeff Brock, Silvia Fernández, María Pierres.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Structure
Text
NB35, Jesús Jiménez, Alejandro Bernabeu.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Contractor
Text
HINACO-NOZAR; Manuel Mirallas.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Facilities
Text
KLIMAKAL, EMTE, SWIM AND DREAM, IMOGEP, BIOSALUD.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Lighting
Text
DIAZ Y OSORIO.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Moneo Brock Studio is an architecture firm characterized by the intensity of its design focus. The Studio's principals, Belén Moneo (Harvard, 1988) and Jeff Brock (Princeton, 1985), formed their professional partnership in 1993 in New York City after receiving their Masters of Architecture from Columbia University's GSAPP in 1991.

Over the course of its 22-year history, the team has completed architectural projects ranging in scale from large public buildings to high-end domestic interiors, and has designed furniture, packaging and bathroom fixtures for industrial production. Moneo and Brock are primarily design architects, with broad experience collaborating with larger firms and consultants in the production and coordination of architectural designs from conceptualization through construction completion. Maintaining ties with New York, the firm opened its principal office in Madrid, Spain, in 2002, where it remains today. They are currently working on international projects in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
Read more
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...