Client – Gilpin

Gilpin Spa

Ben Cunliffe Architects were asked to design and build a new treatment spa for the Lake House site above Winster.

The brief was to produce a design which would blend with its woodland setting, and the simple, elegant wooden box evolved. As the site was difficult to access and was a SSSI, a simple timber frame bolted to a cantilevered steel frame emerging from the lakeside was conceived. Local larch cladding, sourced from the Graythwaite Estate Sawmill, ensured the building blended with the indigenous larch woodland it was set within.

Although modest in size, it manages to contain a reception area, bathroom, kitchenette and two treatment rooms which can be opened out into a single space with a sliding wall. The spa is accessed by a small bridge from the woodland path that leads to it.

The Lake House Spa scooped the award for Best Innovative Design at the 2013 Northern Design Awards