Sotelia Hotel

© Miran Kambič

Architects: Enota
Location: Podčetrtek, Slovenia
Project Team: Dean Lah, Milan Tomac, Petra Ostanek, Anže Zalaznik, Eva Matjašič, Darko Vasiljevič, Mojca Žerjav
Client: Terme Olimia
Landscape Architecture: Bruto
Structure: Elea iC
Mechanical Engineer: Proinstal
Electrical Installation: Elita IB
Project Area: 15,200 sqm
Budget: 12,000,000 EUR
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Miran Kambič


Wellness Hotel Sotelia fills the gap between two existing hotels, both of them not hiding their different architectural origins. New hotel is not trying to summarize samples from nearby structures but rather clearly distances itself from the built environment and connects, instead, with its natural surroundings.

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© Miran Kambič

In design process primary concern was to avoid immense building mass, like the one suggested in the client’s brief, which would have blocked the last remaining view of the forest. The volume is broken up into small units arranged in landscape-hugging tiers. As a result, the four storey 150-room building appears much lower and smaller then this description would suggest.

© Miran Kambič

section diagrams

The specific shape of the hotel was dictated by the folds in the landscape. The unique structures offers passer-by some strong spatial experiences: from the front, the building is perceived as a two-dimensional set composed of parallel planes placed one behind the other; a walk around the hotel reveals entirely different views of the timber facade, from a plane vertical wooden slats to a rhythmic arrangement of balconies and wooden terraces.