Descend Into This Earthy Spa In The Heart Of The Mediterranean 

Sunshine and subterranean settings may seem incongruent. But unifying contrasts is rote for Makhno Studio. The Ukrainian studio’s latest endeavor, Vroda Clinic & Spa, in Limassol, Cyprus, continues the firm’s boundary-pushing MO. “The challenge was to create a space that doesn’t resemble a medical facility,” explains founder and architect Serhii Makhno, who conceived a soft yet brutalist scheme for the 14,700-square-foot project, with clinical cosmetology rooms on the first floor and the spa zone below. The latter offers a dozen water-based experiences—freestanding bathing capsules, voice-activated rain showers, plunge pools, snow chimneys (for cold treatments post sauna or steam room)—housed in annular coves. In the VIP area, Makhno’s cloudlike ceramic pendant fixtures, 3-D printed walls in an earthy clay, and plumes of pampas grass, arranged in the Japanese ikebana style, soothe and calm. Throughout, recessed LEDs and radiant salt blocks gently brighten, while staggered plaster columns and communal marble seating recall ancient Roman bathhouses.