This year's competition called for the design of a wellness center with an emphasis on the use of water as part of a larger culinary attraction planned for the suburban area of Bologna, Italy. This aqua spa was to provide visitors with a health oriented experience that would enrich their relation to the city. 

Our design approach consisted of bringing the urban fabric of Old City Bologna to the rural landscape within which our site was located. The winding roads of the Old City with varied widths, sudden turns, and changes of scenery were overlaid onto our site and stone and asphalt were replaced by grass and water. The existing building on site was deconstructed and the resulting pieces were spread around the site with two modes of circulation weaving them into a new landscape.

Through a water based landscape on the subterranean levels and nature based landscape on the ones above, the proposed aqua center offers visitors a truly unique experience with every program within that echoes the phenomenological diversity of Bologna.