Hotels and establishments
Pools and wellness, designed for hospitality.
Hotel pools, wellness areas, treatment pools and public pools. These are spaces that operate every day of the year, and they are designed accordingly.
See the completed projects
Hotels and institutions
Places renowned for their hospitality.
Seaside hotels, wine estates, mountain houses, care facilities: the house designs water spaces for places that open all year round, on the Basque coast as well as in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Concepts
Studies to open the discussion
Lagoons, a water garden, a pool beneath glass: unbuilt design visuals, useful at the start of a hotel or leisure project.
Architectural concept, unbuilt design visual.
See the conceptsOperation
What matters to an operator.
Four subjects come up in every discussion with an operator, and none of them can be settled after commissioning.
Days of closure
Lost days in a closed wellness area cannot be recovered. Work in an operating property is therefore planned like night work: written phasing, parts on site before the first component comes off, and the refill scheduled before anything starts.
The occupied site
Working in an operating property means controlled hours, access, cleanliness and noise levels. A 316L stainless steel pool is prefabricated in the workshop and installed on an occupied site, with no concrete poured there.
The running cost
Heated water, replacement water, the electricity for the pumps and the treatment products are paid for every month. The sizing of the filtration, the heat recovery and the night cover matter far more over time.
The person who answers
An operator wants a number that answers and somebody who knows their installation. That is settled when the contractor is chosen, not when something breaks down.
Hotels
Hotel pools and wellness areas
In a hotel, the pool and the wellness area are reasons to book. Three things set them apart from a private pool: the bather load varies tenfold within the same day, the installation runs all year, and it is inspected.
The recirculation volume
The filtration flow rate is sized for the number of bathers, not for the volume of water. A hotel pool the size of a villa pool needs filtration on a completely different scale.
The hydraulics
The way the water circulates inside the pool determines how effective the treatment actually is. Badly placed outlets create dead zones that cannot be seen.
Air handling
A wellness area is as much an air problem as a water one: dehumidification, air change, supply at the foot of the glazing and extract at high level. It is what decides whether the joinery lasts.
Silence
A pump can be heard through a slab. The plant room, its anti-vibration mounts and the routing of the pipework are designed with the bedrooms above in mind.
Inspection and monitoring
A pool open to a clientele falls under the French Public Health Code: sanitary monitoring of the water by the regional health agency (ARS), a declaration at the town hall and an up-to-date sanitary logbook. Measuring points, access to the equipment and room to work around it are drawn together with the plant room.
Healthcare
Rehabilitation and treatment pools
A rehabilitation pool is not a small swimming pool. Everything in it is decided by the patient: the way they enter the water, the water depth at which they work, what they take hold of when they lose their balance.
Entry into the water
Gently sloping beach entry, steps with low risers, 316L stainless steel handrail along the whole length. A pool a patient cannot enter unaided requires two carers instead of one.
The water depth
Depth decides buoyancy, and therefore what exercise is possible. A movable floor adjusts the water depth to suit each patient, rather than asking the patient to adapt.
The temperature
Rehabilitation water is held well above leisure water. That changes the sizing of the heating, the sizing of the dehumidification, and the stability of the treatment.
Hygiene
Vulnerable users call for continuous control, managed water replacement and written traceability. These are operating requirements before they are construction requirements.
The applicable requirements
A treatment pool open to the public falls under the French Public Health Code: sanitary monitoring of the water by the regional health agency (ARS), a declaration at the town hall, a sanitary logbook. The rest depends on the establishment and the use, under the applicable regulations. We handle it with the building owner and the competent authority, case by case.
Public authorities
Public pools and teaching pools
A municipal pool, a school pool or a club pool are judged over decades. They receive whole classes, they are inspected, and they are maintained by the staff of the local authority.
The overflow channel around the whole perimeter
The surface layer is drawn off along the entire length, and the balance tank is sized for the volume displaced by a class entering the water at the same time.
Accessibility
Entry by beach entry or by hoist, circulation routes, separation of barefoot and shod areas, changing rooms: this is designed into the overall plan, never at the end of the works.
Operation by the staff
The plant room has to make sense to the person who opens it on Monday morning. Valve labelling, accessible sampling points, room to work, up to date documentation.
Energy
Night cover, heat recovery on the extract air, fine control: these are the items that determine the operating budget, year after year.
Lifespan
A public pool is renovated more often than it is rebuilt. The choice of materials, the access to the plant and the as-built documentation determine the cost of the next refurbishment.
The plant room, in the order the water passes through it
It is the space that decides water quality, consumption, noise and how long a breakdown keeps a pool out of use.
The loop
Surface extraction, balance tank, pump and strainer, sand filter, heat exchanger, disinfection, pH control, return to the pool through the floor. Each component has its place in that order.
Measurement
What is not measured is not controlled. Probes, recording and alarms turn a set of appliances into a workable installation, and leave the written record an inspection will ask for.
Access
A filter is stripped down, a pump is lifted out, a seal is changed. The space left around the plant is the difference between a one day job and a one week one.
Availability
The choice of components, their availability and the documentation of the pipework are decided at the design stage, not when something goes wrong.
Completed projects
Documented projects.
A few of the house’s hotel and institutional projects, presented with their context, their dimensions and the year they were delivered.
Next
Talk about a commercial project.
A commercial project starts with a visit to the existing installation and a conversation about operation: the public you receive, what you can close and when, and what your own team can handle.
Your next pool or wellness space
Everything begins with a meeting.
A place, a wish, a project to imagine together.