Wellness among the colours of nature

The Erika Spa and Relax Hotel, situated in Tyrol, near the city of Merano, is nestled in the heart of a region renowned not only for the beauty of its mountains and landscapes but also for its tourist accommodation facilities, which specialize in wellness and personal care.
The hotel sits on a hill surrounded by the panoramic mountains of South Tyrol and a vegetation of olive and palm trees, in a geographical area that combines Mediterranean sunshine, charming alpine settings and beneficial spa waters.
Having started out as a guesthouse in 1960 that turned into a hotel in 1974, Erika is now a 5 star hotel with 75 guestrooms, a restaurant, a total of 5 pools, including both outdoor and indoor pools, and a spa with a floor area of some 1,700 sq.m, compete with beauty farm and 11 saunas of different types and ambiences. After a succession of extension works (the last of which is currently underway and involves the construction of 3 more pools, slides and dress-on saunas, 4 suites and a new 180 sq.m kitchen), the hotel is a striking example of a facility that has successfully used the language of contemporary design to create a discreet and effective relationship with a site of stunning beauty.
The connection with the alpine setting has been achieved not by attempting to produce a rustic effect, but by creating a series of spaces interconnected with one another as well as the outside through a carefully designed spatial composition and the use of harmoniously combined materials inspired by the surrounding landscape.
A particularly important role is played by wood, which has been used extensively for the external façades, with parapets and cladding in larch, for the furnishings and bedroom panelling, in larch and oak wood, for the saunas, the pool areas and the lounge, as well as for the kitchen floors, covered in wood effect porcelain tiles. A key role is also played by the numerous glass walls which create a dialogue between the interior and the exterior settings in each of the hotel rooms and areas.
All the spaces of the hotel reveal the utmost attention to the combinations of finishes and colours, which have been specially selected in order to contribute visually to stimulating a general feeling of physical wellbeing. This message is delivered to guests from the moment they step into the hotel reception area, a space that is warm and modern at the same time and whose colours echo those of the landscape. The bright shades of the furnishings and the warm tones of the woods and stone elements blend harmoniously with the essential flooring in hand-crafted concrete effect porcelain panels from the Portland 3.0 collection manufactured by Fondovalle, whose large format creates a uniform overall effect. For the walls of the bathrooms in the new suites the choice was made to use the evocative tiles from Dream Woods Collection, also manufactured by Fondovalle and presented at the last Cersaie, inspired by linen texture and natural landscapes, creating the magical effect of a watercolour painting of a wood.