Wellness room, urban spa
Cork on three walls, paired with mica accents. Material warmth was the priority — no decorative tile.
The spa's design brief excluded ceramic and stone tile from the wellness room — a deliberate rejection of the cold, clinical aesthetic common in spa interiors. CK-04 on three walls established the warm, organic ground the designer wanted, while mica accents on the fourth wall added a controlled shimmer without introducing a hard or manufactured surface.
Vancouver's building code requires moisture management in spa environments. The design team installed a vapor barrier behind the cork on the exterior wall, and the cork itself was sealed post-installation with a water-based sealant that preserves the natural surface texture while providing resistance to the humidity typical in a steam-adjacent space. Cork handles this environment significantly better than natural fiber wallcoverings.
Client feedback focused on the absence of the typical spa scent associated with synthetic materials and adhesives. Cork has very low VOC emissions by nature, and the water-based sealant added no solvent off-gassing. The room passed the building inspector's air quality test on first submission — a detail that matters for a space marketed on wellness credentials.
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