THERME GROUP’S ROLE IN THE ECOLOGY OF WELLBEING

Therme Group believes that experiences of the city are best understood by recognising and analysing intersectionality. How the city is experienced depends on a host of conditions including gender, race, ethnicity, class, age and sexuality. Each citizen’s sense of the city is inflected by background, circumstance, identity and experience, and is not reducible to simple formulae.

We seek to engage with everyone - from policymakers to artists, health and care workers to mayors - concerned with wellbeing in cities. Together, we believe, it should be possible to make cities more human, to bring people into a holistic relationship with nature and each other. We have some powerful ideas of our ownand we aim to be part of the global debate.

As we have seen, there is a strong correlation between deprived, socio-economic groups, who are often hard to reach with positive interventions, and health challenges. Therme Group’s research indicates that our projects appeal to people across the board. In Manchester, for example, in-depth research among the 12 million people who live within 90 minutes of the city showed that all socioeconomic groups were equally enthusiastic about the concept of a Therme Group resort.

This gives us the potential to stimulate positive, lasting change. We can help physically, by teaching guests cardio exercises and strength conditioning. By introducing people to healthy food that is popular with all ages, we can help make changes that will affect long-term health and wellbeing.

We provide areas in which people can come together to be social, in which they can recharge mentally, and in which they can experience the wonder of plants, water and art.

To make cities work for humans, Therme Group combines leading engineering and technology with deep-rooted cultural traditions and connections to the natural world to produce solutions geared towards sustainability.

The Roman baths were traditionally a place of physical and mental renewal. They also allowed for egalitarian socialising: they were places where citizens could meet, talk and be together. Therme Group is developing the concept of the Roman baths for the twenty-first century, harnessing nature, technology and culture to create a unique space: thermal baths, botanical gardens, spas, health & fitness activities and a space for socialising and culture.

Therme Group resorts will be designed to be green and sustainable. Watersaving technology will ensure the highest level of water quality while minimising consumption. Exceptional energy efficiency will be achieved through advanced building design, the use of natural daylight, LED lighting, and natural ventilation, plus air- and water-heat recovery.

The resorts will lead to the creation of some of the world’s most advanced sustainable buildings, targeting the highest levels of official accreditation including LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum, a certification already achieved for Therme Bucharest. The LEED rating system, developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost global certification for recognising best-in-class strategies and practices in green building.

Nature and water are at the heart of Therme Group’s 10-year plan to roll out facilities to cities in the UK, mainland Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Each Therme Group resort will contain more than 200 plant species. Saunas and mineral pools will offer intense physical experiences that have benefits for mental health. Wellbeing will be enhanced by outstanding architecture, emphasising natural shapes and forms. Turquoise, warm-water lagoons in spectacular biodiverse gardens will lift the spirits. A few hours in a Therme Group resort offers the opportunity to unplug, to be calm and contemplative, and to focus on beautiful surroundings and oneself.

Therme Group believes that wellbeing should be accessible to all, not just to a privileged few. Therme Bucharest had 1.2 million visitors in its first year, and attracts both old and young. Therme facilities are intended to be inclusive, within the reach of most people; they appeal to families, older people, and adults visiting in groups, as couples or alone. We prioritise high quality materials, sustainability, and accessibility. Therme saunas are beautiful and communal, often involving multisensorial rituals such as aufguss guided sauna sessions.

Spiritual wellbeing is enhanced by the presence of nature and water, beautiful architecture and an extensive art programme of permanent and temporary installations. Each Therme Group resort offers an opportunity for artists to go beyond galleries and museums. Therme Group is working with some of the leading names in the contemporary art world, including Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson, the Studio Drift collective, and leading architects including Francis Kéré, Junya Ishigami, Frida Escobedo, and David Adjaye. Therme Group offers artists the opportunity to produce work that promotes discovery and wonder, contemplation, playfulness, and engagement with others.

Cities, as we have seen, are complex, dynamic, shifting agglomerations that influence citizens and are influenced by them in turn. As we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, health and wellbeing will be more important than ever. Citizens will be more aware of their vulnerability and interdependence. Lockdown has shown us some of the ways we might change our cities to be cleaner, greener, less estranged from the natural world, less polluted, and less busy for the sake of busyness. Drawn back into our homes, we have focused on the arts of life: caring, cooking, gardening, talking, teaching, learning, walking. We would be unwise to lose touch with all of this as we re-emerge, not least because this crisis may be followed by further shocks. We will need to find a balance between systems and empathy, including empathy for the planet on which we find ourselves.

If we are to achieve widespread wellbeing, we have to take a fully human approach, one that takes into account physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs. There are no quick fixes. At Therme Group we want to bring people together in a movement for urban wellbeing. Together, we believe we can create the conditions for humans to thrive in urban settings.