Viljandi is a small 700-year-old town that stretches across a hillside and boasts a beautiful lake that comes alive every summer. Both the founders of KOKO and several of the firm’s architects were born and raised there. The long-awaited spa hotel complex is made up of two donuts, which together form a figure eight.
The spa is divided into three sections: a water park, a swimming pool and a sauna centre. The water park has three pools and several slides. The design of the spa is based on the idea of versatility: a total of 14 saunas are linked together and set apart by cues to the architectural and design language of each of their homelands.
Among the seven saunas with distinct themes and functions are ritual saunas. The saunas are complete with contrast pools and a cold water pool.
There are around 150 spacious hotel rooms with balconies. Their design combines modern materials with nods to Art Deco, the style that was popular during Viljandi’s former golden age, a century ago. The hotel restaurant is designed in luxurious, velvety tones reminiscent of dark August nights. The lakeside restaurant will serve Asian fusion cuisine.
The breakfast buffet restaurant can be separated into an à la carte and lounge area in the afternoons, and the hotel will also include a large family restaurant with a Mediterranean menu. The atmosphere in the latter will be Scandinavian, not the typical bright kind, but one inspired by the modernist style of the 1970s.
Throughout the building, the red brick used in the facade carries over to the interior, evoking an awareness of place. Owing to the large scale of the building, the choice of materials varies greatly depending on the functions of each individual section and includes clinker tiles, grainstone-epoxy, natural stone, carpet, wood, veneer, clay plaster, lime plaster, etc. However, wood with its muffled tones plays the lead role in the building’s finish.