Gregory Burgess Architects

Peninsula Hot Springs is a dunal site, formed over thousands of years by wind and water resulting in a softly flowing and gently rhythmic landscape of protection and intimacy.
Teatree is recolonising the former pasture while thousands of planted casuarinas and banksias have begun to restore the area to its ancient character from the times when the shifting sands stabilized.
With the purpose of Peninsula Hot Springs being a refuge for relaxation and rejuvenation, the architectural intention is to support this by creating a harmonious and enchanting conversation between the landscape, sky, water and the buildings, which immerses the bather in a sensuous healing totality of body, mind and spirit.
Water lying still and quiet in the lake brings a calming and contemplative mood. Cascading down the gully it brings a complementary dynamism – an awareness of elevation and gravity.
Coming up from the hot depths of the earth (geothermal aquifer) to feed the pools or collected rainfall from the roofs of the buildings (to fill the lakes), water is the unifying living thread for the whole site.
The new Bath House at Peninsula Hot Springs (Stage 2) attaches itself to, and grows out of, the original building which now becomes an exclusive retreat with private pools inside and out, massage suites and a small café. An undercroft kiosk serves the new bathing area.
On arrival, a serpentine path winds through the dappled shade of dense Teatree along the edge of the carpark to an entry ramp and an elevated covered and screened walkway with changing vignettes of intimate corners and the wider landscape. This walkway takes visitors to reception – a light-filled space with small retail corner, arcing out into the landscape; here a generous stair connects a quiet intermediate-level relaxation room with the lower foyer – a grotto-like space with stone floor and footbaths opening outside onto a landscaped amphitheatre with more footbaths and shelters. Inside, access is gained to the main change rooms and out to the northern public bathing areas.
Materials are warm timbers and stained ply with colours resonating with the mood of the landscape and nature. In the change rooms these materials are complemented by ceramic tiles along with small and precious inserts of more sumptuous woods, tiles and metals. Natural light is carefully modulated for contrast, mood and view.
The new Bath House with its connecting walkway forms a large embracing verandahed arc to the northern aspect taking in the lake, public pools, children’s pools, reflexology pool-walk, Turkish Hamam and saunas tucked into the bottom of a dunal hill and the stone path that threads a myriad small hot pools which with the hot stream cascade down the steep green shaded gully. A pool on the highest point of the ridge gives a magnificent panorama of the Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay, Arthur’s Seat, the You Yangs and Bass Strait.
Peninsula Hot Springs aspires to an imaginative and richly human integration of sustainable architecture and rejuvenating landscape with a transforming immersive experience for bathers, stirring them with a fresh perception of the importance of connectedness and care in our lives and the world.