Königstein Spa
After an extensive period of communal planning, the project was inaugurated on june 12th 1977 as "House of Health". The building is situated in a part of the historic Hotel Taunusblick, which had been demolished in 1933/34, next to the beltway 8. The architects were Rudolf and Ingeborg Geier, in collaboration with the artist Otto Herbert Hajek. In 1989 the complex was extended with an outdoor pool.
The building is a wide asymmetric composition parallel to the slope of the terrain. The upper floors are set back, creating terraces of different sizes. The chimney- and ventilation tower surpasses the building only slightly, giving the complex a ship-like character. The surface treatment of the facades with nidged exposed concrete and heavy bulges along the floor edges marks the building as a brutalist work.
Typical for the works of Otto Herbert Hajek is the complementary coloring in Blue and Orange, isolating the building visually from the green of the surrounding trees and from its built context. The design elements, part of which are the generous glass elements, have been applied consistently also in the interior. Blue and orange are the identification color of the House of Nassau, thus making the connection to the history of the city of Königstein. The main pool is 25 meters long. Its ceiling is subdivided in five lengths of reflective film, multiplying the dazzle-paint like color treatment of the interior.
