The clients’ requirement was to create a Wellness Centre at Oleander Farms, Karjat, Maharashtra, that would be a tranquil sanctuary for their visitors. Walking through a dense canopy of trees, hearing the soft chirping of birds, we slowly embarked on an expanse of a 2-acre land, that was both open yet heavily tree laden. This abundance of nature was what we chose to highlight in the project, reinvigorating the design philosophy of Urban Circle - of creating built environments that seamlessly intersperse with the surrounding environs.

Being drawn to the envelope of nature at the project site, led to the inception of the thematic “Eutierria” which describes the positive feeling of oneness with the earth and its life forces, where the boundaries between self and nature are blurred, leading to a deep sense of peace and connectedness. This feeling, of “becoming one with nature”, was what we wanted the visitors to experience here.

We therefore conceived the project as a collection of spaces that are unassumingly nestled within the greenscape of the site. Spaces have been designed in and around the existing tree cover (not a single tree being felled in the process)- with some trees ascending through the roofs, some accentuating the expanse of spaces as focal elements and some delineating and defining the edges of the volumes created.

All internal spaces have also been designed to further accommodate internal courts and open-to-sky areas that supplement as independent reflective pockets and meditative zones. These also aid in blurring the divide between the indoors and the outdoors, kindling further the man-nature relationship. Spatially, the project houses four independent wings, overlooking a central expansive swimming pool. The entrance wing is designed as a light structure in sleek metal frames and glass, ensuring visual connectivity to nature as one first sets foot into the Wellness Centre. The expanse of this wing is punctured with a sculptural element at the centre.

A soaring piece of rock almost appears to float over a shallow pool of water, and through it emanate ripples of water. Using the calming sound of rippling water- nature’s own lullaby to man, this sculptural element is the visitor's first visual and sensory experience here. Designed to capture the essence of “a mind afloat”, it extends an invitation to the Wellness Centre, being a portal of inner peace.

The two smaller wings on either side of the swimming pool house the men’s and women’s changing rooms with independent sauna and steam rooms attached. The other, parallel to the entrance wing, houses the single and couple spa treatment rooms. All these internal spaces have been planned to accommodate smaller outdoor green courts and open-to-sky shower areas that supplement as independent meditative zones, continuing to blur the divide between the indoors and the outdoors.

The four wings are spatially separated from each other, but retain similarity with the use of basalt-clad feature walls on their edges. These feature walls also accentuate the four corners- unbuilt volumes, that frame the expanse of nature beyond. These are designed as portals that ensure unobstructed visual continuity letting the visitor pursue their tryst with nature.

The Wellness Centre, designed in a contemporary Tropical Modernist outlook, employs a largely soft and subdued material palette. Through basalt floors, natural wooden frames and louvres, mildly textured beige walls, furniture made on-site in natural wood, outdoor paving in simple cobble stones, and with the feature walls in basalt, the palette remains rooted and retains an earthlike tonality, with the intention of accentuating the dense green cover around.

The Wellness Centre, weaves three core design principles- designing for nature, ensuring true responsiveness to the context of land; designing for experience, considering the visitors’ navigation through the spaces; and designing for simplicity, through mindful forms, materials and aesthetics. As a sensitive human response to nature, it focuses on both the built volumes and the spaces between them; leaving the natural environment in its pristine form - almost untouched and unaltered. Standing testament to our vision, the Wellness Centre harmoniously coexists within the context of the land, with Eutierria being the very essence of one’s experience here.