Ananda, meaning ultimate bliss, is a personal spa that explores the coming together of water, steam, light, materials and space in relation to the body.

Inspired by the Hammams of Morocco, Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien observed how people in these steam baths sit low to the ground, either on a bucket or on the floor itself. This contains hot steamed towels and on the glass surface there is a porcelain aroma dispenser and water vessel. “It doesn’t really belong to a specific tradition; for me it’s a human tradition of well-being and materials,” says Nipa Doshi. “I think the materials are sympathetic to human beings, so it’s not like white plastic. If you walk into a white plastic cube, you’d probably feel wrong or uncomfortable in that space. I wanted to create a space where it matters who we are; we should feel very beautiful in this space.”

Ananda constitutes a series of elements that incorporate the most advanced hydrotherapy technology combined with sensual materials. The use of concrete provides a smooth, hard but warm surface. “A very sensual but industrial material,” as Doshi describes it, this concrete contrasts with the advanced technology concealed within, which is “intelligent and intuitive so you almost don’t notice it. It is integrated into the steam cabinet, but it controls the aroma and steam, it provides the hot towels and it controls the water,” explains Levien.

The spa is no longer a place merely for occasional use, as Doshi and Levien have extended the purpose of steam beyond simply filling a room. They see the spa as forming part of one’s daily routine: “If you don’t use the steam, you can still use the steamed towel in the steam cabinet. And there’s always the idea that you might not just use it once a day; you may use the space two or three times a day,” they explain.

“It’s a modular solution which means you don’t have a wall; you can just have a glass wall. This allows us to create a visual continuity between the living space and the Ananda space. It’s more connected.” The result is a new visual and functional expression defined by the relationship between body and space, as opposed to body and product.


Images, from above:
1-4. Ananda, shower and hammam modular space made to measure
5. Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien photographed in Bologna during Cersaie 2010
6-7. Sketches by Nipa Doshi