Site Planning: Thermal Baths, Vals

Site planning, another concept of a building and its architecture. You got to check out the surroundings of the place. Where are the roads, any canals? Or trees, animals. Simple things like those could tick off the planning and construction of the plans. There are two things to look at: The Programming and Designing.Programming is when you  search for problems or gaps in the site and compare then to your work. If it's going to work or not going to work. They search for things that could go wrong. It is pretty useful so the architect won't have to re-do the whole thing, but rathe work around it. When you Design the site plan, not only is it actually drawing the building and site, but solving the gaps and problems that were presented. Drawing, planning and building around them. Allowing the architect the final product, without flaws.

A great example are the Therme Vals in Switzerland. They're indoor pools and spas for a hotel in Vals, Switzerland. What is so captivating about this building is that it's coming out from the mountain's slope. It gives the illusion that the building was carved out of the mountain. Not only that but the stone they used looks like the granite from the mountain. There are several rooms, that are each a different type of pool or spa. The roof is actually an oversized puzzle, they're put in the form of a giant square covered with a grass roof. But what truly called me in was that they depend on natural lighting, even if they're inside a building, giving it that cave like feeling. I loved this building because it allows the building to truly harmonize with its surroundings. It balances its site with the building, it really worked around the topography of it, giving it its feel. Providing that feeling of being in the mountain itself.