Tea with an Architect: Meet Beverley Bayes

Beverley Bayes, Director at Sparcstudio Spa Architects and Designers
is one of the Consultant you can meet at the Tea with an Architect event. it will take place as part of Professional Beauty London, on 22-23 February 2015.
Beverley is sharing her professional experience with Professional Spa & Wellness.

1 -  How did your activity in the spa business begin?

The Directors of Sparcstudio have worked together for over 20 years, initially specializing in Hotel and high end Health and Fitness club design. This naturally led onto specialist Spa design, firstly within a new breed of fitness club that also embraced Wellness, such as the Amida Clubs and then Spas within 4-5 star Hotels such as the Calcot Spa at Calcot Manor and destination spas and wellness clubs in the UK, Europe and further afield. 

2 -  What do you expect from Tea with an Architect?

We hope to provide inspiration and direction to spa operators and developers and assist them with their development journey by understanding their business and location. We hope to have the opportunity to explain the services that we can provide from initial concept design through to the delivery of a completed project - including final dressing, ready for opening.
We can assist with refurbishment as well as new build projects. Pool and heat cabin design is a key area of expertise and is often the 'jewel in the crown' of a facility. Exciting and theatrical Lighting design is also a key part of all of our schemes.  

3 -  What pitfalls can you help people avoid by coming to Tea with an Architect?

We pride ourselves on creating Spa schemes with a real attention to detail to ensure that the Spas we design have longevity. We endeavour to provide design solutions that really work to deliver a beautiful and inspiring spa journey for the guest and a seamless operational layout for the Spa Operator/owner. 
Our many years of experience enable us to help Spa Operators and Owners avoid costly mistakes such as bad space-planning and inappropriate specification of materials which are very difficult to rectify at a later stage. 
Sadly and all too often we encounter new Spas where the operator has had to resort to laying anti-slip matting around pools as there are insufficient falls or tiles that do not have the right slip rating. Sparcstudio provide very detailed designs and specifications to avoid these maintenance and operational nightmares! Our specialist Spa design knowledge means that we bring a wealth of experience, creativity and technical ‘know how’ to any Spa project and most importantly that we won’t be ‘learning on the job’. 

4 -  What do you think will be the 2015 trends in the wellbeing business?

‘Alfresco spa’ is continuing to be a very important part of a spa/wellbeing offer. For rural settings and where appropriate we endeavour, to provide a link with nature and the landscape to external spa gardens/experiences. We consider each Spa, its location and setting to be unique, and try our very best to capitalise on this ‘uniqueness’.
We also anticipate a rise in demand for ‘Social Spa-ing’. We created a 'Mad Men’ style Verve Cliquot Champagne, Nail parlour for The House Spa, Dormy House Hotel and for SoSPA Sofitel StJames a 'Tea Pavilion' - a social centre piece where guests can partake in a 'martini and a manicure'.  
For Aqua Sana Woburn Forest at Center Parcs, we designed an express treatment area and social spa area and have worked closely with Center Parcs to create an exciting ‘Hide Away’ spa concept for small spa groups. 
Private Spa Suites and Couples Suites linked to Spa experiences are still very much on the agenda and provide that extra special level of ‘Slipper’ luxury for those guests wishing to extend their Spa stay.

5 - Which project would you consider as your best achievements?  

We always consider our last project to be our best, but if we had to choose! For sheer popularity and recent award winning success - The House Spa, Dormy House Hotel has received more than its fair share of accolades from national and international press and is a favourite of many a Beauty Editor and Spa Blogger. House Spa has been awarded ‘Mr and Mrs Smith best Spa’, ‘The Sunday Times Ultimate 100 UK Hotels winner of best spa’ and ‘Conde Nast Traveller Destination spa hotel’. 

Closest to our Hearts is Calcot Spa at Calcot Manor Hotel which has for over ten years set the benchmark for Spa excellence and guest experience and regularly wins awards. 

For sheer scale, innovation and ambition the new Aqua Sana Center Parcs Woburn has launched to unprecedented success and provides those new to Spa with a wonderful, inviting way of experiencing Spa for the first time and seasoned Spa guests, new and exciting Spa experiences in the most unusual Forest setting.
 
And not forgetting the sleek, urban Spa So SPA Sofitel at James, a ‘Jewel’ in the London Spa scene.

All have been great fun to be involved with and all are very much part of the Sparcstudio fabric; given the opportunity we will talk about them endlessly.

Read more about Tea with an architect here

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