Tag: water

Water leisure: the key to attracting family tourism

To capture a particular target group, it is important for tourist establishments to have a dedicated offering that sets them apart in the sector and satisfies the needs of increasingly discerning and segmented tourists. Water leisure can be a major draw for families, particularly young children, who play a decisive role when it comes to choosing a holiday destination.

Families are one of the guest profiles that tourist resorts are most eager to attract. They are characterised by long stays (seven to 10 days) and are very loyal customers. According to the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, around 70% of families who have a good holiday experience will return in the near future.

TCP Burbuja PamplonaThrills are what bring in the families. That’s why it is important to provide experiences like play, which children, who very often act as decision-makers and leads, can’t get enough of.

“Water leisure is incredibly effective at boosting a brand among customers and retaining a family public,” says Ignacio Elburgo, general manager of Fluidra Engineering Service. “Water parks and aquatic play facilities are the best way to turn water installations into recreational pools”.

A good alternative for people not keen to build a pool is zero-depth splash parks, a new type of installation that makes it possible to play in very shallow water and which promotes safe interactivity and inter-generational play. Finally, bubbles (fun guaranteed) and water slides are an adventure and adrenalin alternative for young and old alike.

Did you know?

  • More than 50% of decisions regarding family holidays are taken with the children’s opinions in mind.
  • More than 50% of teenagers who have had a positive holiday experience share it on social networks.
  • More than 70% of children under the age of 13 tell their friends about their summer experiences when they get back from holidays.

Water as an Architectural Resource

Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake) is a reservoir that was built on the Colorado River where it passes through the US city of Austin, Texas, for the purposes of containing floods and providing a leisure facility in the region..

The climate in the area is characterised by hot summers and mild daytime temperatures in winter, with relatively low rainfall all year round. Nearby can be found Edgeland House, designed by the Belgium-Taiwanese firm Bercy Chen Studio for a science fiction writer. Its design stands out among the numerous typical family homes in this corner of Texas.

The architects managed to reinterpret one of the oldest types of building in America, a pit house sunk into the ground so that they could make the most of the land’s thermal inertia. The house, barely 130 square metres on a single floor, sit two metres below ground level and can only be recognised as such as one approaches it and stumbles across a crack that runs from end to end to divide the inside into two well-defined areas: the living and sleeping quarters.

The surrounding natural plant life, from which the architects also drew inspiration, was made to form part of the design with the help of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The result is a green roof that almost completely makes the house invisible from the outside. Apart from making the house blend in with its surroundings, this construction method maintains the inside of the home at a constant temperature and, therefore, keeps energy bills down.

edgeland_house_3_thecoolpool

This is not the only heating system used in this project for improving comfort indoors. Incoherence with the rest of the design, a system of radiators was installed that works with water at low temperatures. This makes energy consumption, whether to heat or air condition the house, considerably lower. This high-performance system of circulating water is rounded off by the home’s fantastic pool. Reached by crossing the central corridor that runs through the house, the pool’s water volume also serves as an additional thermal mass.

The views from the central corridor of the house are particularly appealing in this natural landscape and its shape ventilates the whole of the house as if it were a continuous patio.

Pictures: Paul Bardagjy

A Scandinavian refuge for enjoying water all year around

Everybody knows about the enviable Scandinavian custom of using the bounties of water for keeping in good physical and mental health. The young architects’ studio Claesson Koivisto Rune, founded in Stockholm in 1995 and whose work straddles between architecture and design, has just designed and completed a pavilion with two pools for a villa built in 1796. Although the mansion has a predominantly classic look, the proposal of the multidisciplinary studio for the new facility stands out for its modern style of pure and simple lines.

Thanks to the space designed, the owners of the villa can enjoy a swim all year around. For summer days, they have an outdoor pool on a platform as the main feature in the middle of this piece of work. From here, there is a view over the rest of the garden. Although one would think that this is ideal for hot summer’s days, it does not take a stretch of the imagination to envisage more daring swimmers having a dip in this pool surrounded by snow. However, there is an indoor pool under the platform to round off this project. Both offer a splendid choice for having a swim every day of the year.

Poolhus Wirum, Claesson Koivisto Rune

The build is marked by a single detail that runs throughout the project. Inspired by French parquet flooring, the architects have followed through the chevron pattern on every surface of the build. The wood decking, the panelling (on both walls and ceilings) and the tiling have the same pattern carefully cut using a precision laser. White was chosen for the tiling and, thanks to the steps arranged like a grandstand in the pool, they reflect a darker shade of turquoise the deeper they are.

The two pools are flanked by two volumes on the platform that serves to conceal the stairwell down to the spa and to fit out a roofed kitchen with a dining area for meals in the garden.

The image of the new spa clearly has little to do with this villa’s historic style. However, there is no doubt that the architects have managed to conjure up a visual memory of the chevron parquet flooring in the mansion’s classically styled rooms.