The Spa's the Thing
Three residential resorts promote world-class spas as a way to relax at your home away from home.
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ShareJune 1, 2007
As hotel residences have become increasingly popular, so has the list of services offered to owners. Joining the list of essential amenities for a vacation home community—such as concierge service, golf course access and gourmet restaurants—is the designer spa. Here we focus on three new serene spas that are steps away from some of the hottest seaside real estate on the market.Doonbeg Golf Club
Ireland
Top: The Ritz-Carlton’s spa features quartzite walls and a glass
bridge. Photograph by Eric Laignel. Bottom: A sculptural lantern at Doonbeg’s oasis. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Six years in the making, Doonbeg Golf Club opened in mid-2006
to reveal an old world–style resort development on Ireland’s southwest coast. As
with its sister development, Kiawah Island, S.C., Doonbeg’s emphasis is on golf.
Located in County Clare, about 45 minutes from Shannon, the resort has a
ruggedly spectacular 18-hole Greg Norman–designed golf course along over a mile
of beach and dunes, as well as Tom Colicchio’s the Long Room restaurant.
Membership to the private club—which requires a $70,000 refundable deposit and
$3,600 in annual dues—is by invitation, and only club members are permitted to
purchase real estate. For nongolfers, the area offers dolphin-watching,
horseback riding, helicopter rides, surfing, boating and other water sports.
Top: As with her work at Kiawah Island’s Sasanqua spa in
South Carolina, Clodagh’s White Horses spa at Doonbeg has a neutral color
palette and a Zen-like atmosphere. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. Bottom: Sunshine was brought into the subterranean
treatment rooms via amber-colored plaster. A kinetic sconce constantly rotates
light like the sun. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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All of Doonbeg’s 56 suites sold out in less than a year (before
the ground breaking), a fully furnished one recently came on the market for
$1.79 million. Additional offerings include the 17 four-bedroom,
3,000-square-foot Links Cottages, which are priced from $1.9 million (19 more
are scheduled for completion by the end of the year). As with Kiawah Island,
architect John Haley and interior designer Jackye Lanham were recruited to
design the bulk of Doonbeg’s structures, while Clodagh was commissioned to
design the White Horses spa.
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"Somebody said the sunshine in Ireland is in the hearts of the people," says Irish-born, New York–based Clodagh, who is best known for her modern Zen-like interiors. "I decided to make the sunshine in the heart of the spa." The dilemma was how to accomplish that in a basement space at the Doonbeg Golf Club with only one source of natural light. Her solution was to deploy polished amber-colored plaster that makes walls veritably glow, and kinetic light fixtures that change the light constantly ("it circulates rather than stagnates," says Clodagh), the way sunshine naturally does.
The treatment rooms have vaulted ceilings that recall the
subterranean spaces of Clodagh’s childhood home. Throughout the spa, Clodagh
signatures—natural, eco-friendly products and materials such as stone tubs and
reclaimed wood surfaces—abound. And, of course, she says, "We were working with
feng shui and biogeometry to make people feel comfortable and to circulate joy
throughout the rooms." Kerstin Florian products and treatments inspired by the
sea dominate the spa and salon menu of services.
Doonbeg Golf Club,
866.366.6234, www.doonbeggolfclub.com
Clodagh, 212.780.5300,
www.clodagh.com
