Wellness For One

Wellness really dominates the conversation in workplace design. We see this very human value commoditised into design tools, clever interior inclusions, rating systems and more. It’s gratifying to see the take-up – from thoughtful colour schemes to connections to nature, high quality amenities that address ‘me’ time and ‘we’ time, and even environmental monitoring systems. Wellness is a community health program.

But what of that more introspective aspect of wellness? Reconnective disconnection, isolated re-energising? Taking time to contemplate the dark side of happiness... that is, sorrow?

Shanghai-based Hip-pop Design Team’s Jiyu Spa in China’s coastal Jiangsu province challenges the idea of wellness in a very private and moody experience. It’s one of glassy boundless spaces, of carefully curated light and shadow. “Visitors are immersed in the large-scale peaceful picture, where the senses are awakened by the visible world, and the feelings and images once ignored in life are represented here,” says Hip-pop Design Team.

The team uses transparency, reflective glass and falling water to dramatic effect. Moments become freeze-framed, your three-dimensional depth-sense falls away to leave you alone with your raw emotions in a four-dimensional sphere.

The secret is in the glass boxes and waterfall: layers of glasses form a dreamy visual effect. As the individual moves through this space they encounter the waterfall which, thanks to the reflective glass, surrounds the individual. “In such a mysterious and profound place, people who are increasingly restless… will be slowly melted by the gentle water,” the design team comments. A whole-self antidote to the more mainstream measures of wellness at work.