Wellness Centre, Liverpool
Type: Wellness / Interior fit-out
Year: 2023
Status: Design complete to Stage 4
Practice: OCTO Architects
My role: RIBA Stages 1–3. Existing and proposed drawings; 3D renders; client presentations
The Challenge: The brief was to fit float rooms, hyperbaric chambers, red light therapy, a sauna, cold plunge and a studio into a compact 16 × 15m unit, where the centre of the plan receives no natural daylight.
The Concept: Rather than filling the unit with a mezzanine, the design creates a double-height glazed atrium at its heart. The darkest part of the plan becomes the focal point, enhanced with soft feature lighting, while treatment rooms wrap around the space and pods cantilever into the void.
The Result: The design was developed through client presentations, then fully specified and costed before the project was placed on hold. Sustainable systems were also proposed, including air-source heat pumps, underfloor heating and heat-recovery ventilation.
