Tilescape

Optical dispersion – illusionary landscape: the spa designed by architect Agata Woźniczka, who has acquired extensive experience in top Polish and international architectural agencies and is a co-owner of the BudCud architectural agency, transports you into the middle of a dream. And dissolves the forms of furnishings.

“Even in ancient Pompei, the House of Siricius painting with its visual tricks tells of the possibilities of an infinite dream room. This perspective of optical acrobatics is as topical as ever – not only in the art of James Turrell but also in terms of wellness environments. Rooms for often fairytale-like, almost hidden experiences – quite in contrast to the everyday world. Using colour, light and illusions for a unique spa venue therefore forms a natural design maxim, so to speak. And gives rise to a subjective, dreamdancer-like impression in the eye of the beholder. After all, the minimalistic room conjures up exactly the otherworldly feeling promised by an oasis of peace: contemplation of the inherently subjective image worlds. This refuge is determined by ascending lines, light and shadows which compress, alter or extend the atmospheric interior landscape. Spot-lighting which floodlights the brightest strips on the wall in a white horizontal line makes the wall glow. The steam admitted to the room directly through the openings above the white tiles humidifies the air and even creates a rainbow depending on the angle at which it is observed. As an optical medium sliding into the atmospheric worlds of the otherwise inwardly contemplative spa visitor.”

Agata Woźniczka

Agata Woźniczka, Krakow, Poland, www.budcud.org

„

An extraordinary room which transports you into an illusion far beyond any everyday spatial experiences.

By means of a simple combination and variation of rectangular tiles of different sizes, Agata Woźniczka succeeds in achieving an interesting “spatialisation” of the surface. Successive diminution of the tiles and the associated increase in join designs creates exciting graduations from light to dark. The two-dimensional and limiting spaces depicted by walls, ceiling and floor evolve to form a threedimensional image in the eyes of the beholder. The edges of the room seem to dissolve as the room conveys the impression of continuing into “infinity”. The jury was fascinated by this exceedingly simple and sensitive approach to tiles as a material which culminates in a very convincing result. An optical illusion evolves and the surface becomes space.

– The Tile Award jury

Gradient variety