Abastumani revitalizes its spa resort by the new Agobili Hotel with Scandinavian design, injecting a new sense of life and wellness into the lush forest landscape. Designed by Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen, the new Agobili Hotel at the spa resort Abastumani in Georgia offers its visitors tranquility and luxury at the southern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus.
During the 19th century, the spa was famous as a place of physical and mental rejuvenation not only for the Tsar family but many health tourists. Comfortable temperatures in summer, breathtaking snow-covered landscapes in winter and the overall moderate climate of the Otskhe River Valley offer the ideal environment for wellness, refuge, and renewal. Henning Larsen draws from this heritage and foster a new vision of health and natural connection through the Agobili Hotel.
Werner Frosch, Partner at Henning Larsen and Managing Director at the Munich office explains: “The combination of honoring history and nature at the same time is very important for the region. And, for Georgia as a whole, the hotel sets new standards for the tourism economy. We are proud to realize this design, which will give tourists a truly unique experience and make them curious to go exploring the country further.”
A unique experience of nature and tranquility
The building concept visualizes the three main elements – the mountain, the forest and the sky. Together with the local heritage, the building design aims to create a story about the magnificent place it inhabits. The 25,000m² hotel consists of two parts: A solid plinth, carved into the mountainside comprising all the public spaces, and timber cubes on top shaping the private rooms.
The natural dark stone implemented in the exterior and interior of the plinth blurs the distinction between mountain and building. From here, guests enter the atrium with an overwhelming flow of space like a mountain cave. At every corner, visitors are allured to discover different destinations at different levels: the hotel rooms, the spa or the conference area and the restaurants.
The hotel offers 135 rooms, ranging from queen-sized rooms of 28m² to presidential suites of 78m². To create a sense of place, all private quarters are cladded both inside and outside with timber, dressed with outside slabs and columns. The patina of the high quality, natural materials selection over time will foster a harmonic integration of the Agobili Hotel with the surrounding nature.
Equally, the chosen materials and detailing support the sustainability strategy by reducing costs of maintenance. Commissioned by the real estate asset and investment management company Redix, Henning Larsen collaborates with landscape architects ManMadeLand, spa specialist Elmar Nagele and local architect DMark. Construction of the Agobili Hotel started in summer 2018 and it is expected to open in 2020. Source and images Courtesy of Henning Larsen.