Thermal Spa Bad Aibling

The Thermal Spa in Bad Aibling was built between 2005 and 2007, as the spa town—located 60 km southeast of Munich—sought to expand its health and leisure amenities with new thermal baths, wellness areas, and outdoor pools. These additions reinforce Bad Aibling’s identity as Bavaria’s oldest moor spa, creating a health-focused destination that honors the local tradition while appealing to both locals and visitors.

To meet requirements for water quality, privacy, and indoor climate, the various pools and treatment areas are housed in separate, dome-shaped structures embedded in what we call the winter garden. Seemingly scattered at random, these domed cabinets are in fact intricately connected through a network of energy considerations, structural demands, and user needs, unified by a pool deck that extends from the changing rooms through the spacious winter garden to the outdoor terraces. The winter garden offers a tranquil setting with multiple bathing options and access to the domes, outdoor pools, and saunas, all sheltered under a low timber roof.

Each dome, conceived as a mostly opaque volume punctuated by circular openings, has its own identity shaped by varying natural and artificial light, materials, water features, and acoustics. The climate concept capitalizes on the spatial separation between the domes, hall, restaurant, and lounging areas to optimize comfort and energy efficiency. By supplying air to the hall and extracting it from the domes—where water surfaces and humidity are concentrated—the design creates a warm, humid climate inside the domes and a cooler, drier one in the hall. The glazed hall also functions as a solar-heated winter garden.

In 2015, we completed a two-story extension to the spa, designed as a central hub connecting visitors to the existing indoor and outdoor sauna areas. It also serves as the gateway to a new relaxation zone, where a curved timber construction on the ground floor extends outward to embrace the southern annex. Reclining beds are available both here and on the upper floor, offering serene spaces for rest and rejuvenation.