AN INHABITED LANDSCAPE
Afyon Spa Hotels is a thermal wellness and mixed-use complex located in Afyonkarahisar, central Turkey. The project emerges from three elements that have shaped the identity of this territory for centuries: stone, water and nature.
The site lies between the expanding city and the thermal landscape of Ömer–Gecek, establishing a dialogue between the region's geological memory and its contemporary development.
In Afyonkarahisar, the relationship between geology and settlement is particularly evident. The city has developed around a monumental volcanic rock formation, while the presence of geothermal resources has established a longstanding culture of thermal bathing and wellbeing. Drawing on these conditions, the project conceives architecture as a new piece of terrain, rather than a collection of independent buildings.
Spatial Memory
The project draws on the spatial memory of the region, not through the reproduction of historical forms, but through the reinterpretation of their underlying architectural principles.
Three recurring ideas inform its spatial language: the protected void, the carved mass and the restorative relationship between architecture and nature.
The Protected Void
From rock-cut spaces to traditional courtyards, the region reveals a recurring relationship between enclosure and openness. Protected from their surroundings yet open to light, air and sky, these spaces establish an intimate world within the architectural mass.
In Afyon Spa Hotels, this principle is reinterpreted as a sequence of inhabited courtyards, where water, vegetation and collective life become part of an inner landscape.
The Carved Mass
Architecture is conceived as a continuous mineral body, shaped through subtraction rather than the aggregation of separate volumes. Courtyards, passages and openings are carved into the mass, creating a sequence of spatial transitions and allowing light, movement and landscape to penetrate the building. The result is an architecture that appears both solid and porous, where the relationship between mass and void defines the spatial experience.
Healing Through Nature
The relationship between architecture and nature forms the third principle. Drawing on the region's longstanding culture of thermal bathing, the project brings together water, vegetation, stone and natural light as essential components of wellbeing. Rather than surrounding the architecture, these elements become embedded within it, shaping spaces for restoration, contemplation and shared experience.
A Continuous Landscape
At the scale of the masterplan, the different architectural programmes are brought together within a continuous system of built and open spaces.The hotel defines and protects the central thermal landscape, while villas, hospitality, collective and public programmes extend throughout the site.
This continuity also unfolds in section. Technical and service levels support the wellness core, the ground floor becomes a shared landscape, and hotel rooms rise above it. The ground lifts, folds and extends through the architecture, articulated by courtyards, gardens and private patios.
Stone, Water and Nature
The three original elements are not merely conceptual references. They become integral parts of the project's architectural and environmental systems.
Stone becomes envelope. The qualities of geological mass are reinterpreted through depth, rhythm and shadow. The façade is conceived as a three-dimensional section, where repeated modules and recessed balconies create protected outdoor spaces and provide solar shading.
Water becomes experience and resource. Thermal water moves through different stages of use. Its heat is recovered for the building systems before the water reaches temperatures suitable for thermal bathing. In this way, the project makes use of its energy potential alongside its sensory and ritual qualities.
Nature becomes living ground. Planted courtyards, green roofs, an elevated park and the surrounding landscape form a continuous system, supported by rainwater collection and reuse for irrigation.
Afyon Spa Hotels is therefore not conceived simply as a destination placed within the landscape, but as an attempt to make the landscape itself inhabitable.
DATA
Architecture
Concept / Schematic / Detailed Design / Artistic Direction
Location: Afyonkarahisar – Turkey
Year: 2024 – Ongoing
Site Area: 110.000 sqm
Built Area: 5.700 sqm
Client: Çekiçler Group
With: Ipek Çevik Karabulut, Ece Binbaşı, Beyza Terzioğlu, Can Görgün, Efe İlteray, Melek Pelin Bolat
Structural Design: Konkan
Mechanical Systems Design: Mekanink Proje
Acoustic Design: Spektre
Landscape: Studio Neoge
Visualization: Play-Time
Our Afyon Spa Hotels Project has been selected at the World Architecture Festival in the categories: Future Projects – Commercial Mixed-Use and Leisure-led Development - July 13, 2026