A Spa Immersed in Silence, Rooted in River and Stone

Located in the verdant Alto Minho region of northern Portugal, the Vez River Spa was conceived as a sanctuary drawn from the landscape itself, where the rhythms of water, stone, and forest shape both architecture and experience. This competition entry reimagines the act of bathing and restoration not as escape, but as immersion, a return to slowness through elemental form.

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The architecture is carved, not built. Embedded in the contours of the riverbank, the spa unfolds in a sequence of earthbound gestures; retaining walls, sweeping roofs, and thermal pools shaped as voids within stone. Rather than dominate the site, the intervention moves with it: long horizontal volumes stretch along the Vez, while small vertical cuts open views to the canopy and light.

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Visitors enter through a low, grounded forecourt; an intentional compression that gives way to an unfolding spatial narrative. Interior paths echo the flow of the river, leading from pools, massage rooms, dry saunas to a private gym. Materials: local stone, timber, glass; are left unfinished, meant to weather and belong. Reflections of water animate ceilings and walls, further collapsing the line between architecture and landscape.

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The proposal is guided by the belief that buildings belong to the stories they hold, and in this case, the story is geological, hydrological, and deeply human. The Vez River Spa is not a retreat from life, but a re-tuning with it, where architecture becomes a vessel for quiet, sensory renewal shaped by centuries of flowing water and still stone.

Our Impact

Vez River Spa | Design + Presentation

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SKG Architecture, LLC competition entry through Buildner. 

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Location / Alto Minho region in Portugal

Building Type / New Construction 

Building Size / 1,700 SF

Submission Date / July 2025

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