Stone wall coverings and the architecture of wellness

The architecture of wellness: how stone wall coverings may help design silence in living spaces.

What about if it would be possible, even if for just a minute, to close the doors, leaving behind us worries, duties and working deadlines?
In a more and more hectic society, people seem to have discovered again the pleasure (and the need) to take a break from their daily routine, staying alone and finding time for themselves, carving a nestle out of their chaotic days.
A shelter in the mountains, a cottage in a rustic landscape, a little nest on the blank of a lake or a Spa: there are many possibilities – and spaces – to relax. Above all if we talk about spas, since always conceived as the exaltation of relaxation and wellbeing. Indeed, as the wellness trend keeps growing, Spas have become spaces where people may nurture their physical as well as mental health.

People’s wellbeing has become the first aspect to focus on when projects are planned but also another element is becoming more and more important: silence. The absence of noise and the freedom to listen to nothing is today a privilege and also a need, seen how we’re constantly immersed in a world of bustle, movements and activities, difficult to escape from. Now, imagine entering a space with no noise, listening to nothing but silence. The more we experience silence, the more we feel better. Starting from this idea, the architecture of wellness has become also an architecture of silence, designing spaces that improve people’s well-being and foster the experience of beauty, through a holistic approach focused on how brains react to aesthetic and pleasure. For this purpose, every detail and element are then essential and have to be carefully thought and planned.

Materials have become more and more important in tailoring a reinvigorating experience. Let’s think about natural stone combined with water: a binomial that’s the exaltation of wellness and relaxation, letting guests experience nature and going back to the essential. A space covered with stone wall and floor claddings and while water silently flowing goes beyond a simple physical experience but it acquires a range of emotional meanings, letting guests feel better in a more complete way. In the last years, the same concept of wellness has changed, widening its range of meanings: not only spaces where guests may recharge their batteries but temples of silence, like monasteries and cloisters, where guests may nurture their well-being, finding again a strong bond with their origins.

Choosing stone wall coverings and floor textures contribute to reaching this, because guests may breathe, touch, interact and completely live nature; in addition to this, if natural stone is tridimensionally processed, they may also help reduce the noise pollution in a space thanks to their sound absorbency features due to the intrinsic porosity of the materials used, and also to their peculiar 3D textures providing a broader contact surface with the incidental sound wave, encouraging in this way the dissipation of a higher amount of sound energy.

Spaces of natural beauty inspiring creativity and nurturing wellness where words become worthless and unnecessary to explain their deep potential.

So, shhh! and just enjoy the thunderous silence!

Below, some spas projects where our marble stone coverings were specified:

1. Our “fondo” and “cubo” wall coverings from the “Pietre Incise” collection in the “Residence Le Provençal” project by Longo Palmarini Architecture & Partners.
2. A private spa project by Studio D73 with our “vena” wall texture from the “Nuance” collection and our “seta curve luce” stone cladding from the “Pietre Incise” collection.