Healing Centers – Janus Welton Design Works

Ascenza Wellness Center – Blairstown, NJ

Ascenza Wellness Center was developed by our client, a chiropractor, to provide a caring, healing, nurturing environment. A place where his patients and clients can get informed about the benefits of the wellness model of health, fitness, and modern chiropractic care. The program called for a yoga room, multi- fitness room, treatment rooms, office, retail, and a large loft gathering space for health events and seminars.

The client’s vision for the building was an Asian inspired post and beam healing center with hand hewn columns, beams, and an abundance of light to express the Ascenza’s “ascension” concept. But inside, I developed the floor plan as a curvy spine culminating in an oval, egg shaped yoga meditation room. This hard and soft contrast speaks to the softer, wellness and chiropractic work that occurs inside. The stair to the loft is also curved leading to a wide-open loft space for wellness gatherings and teaching seminars.

The Emerson Spa – Mount Tremper, NY.

The Emerson Spa was situated at Emerson Place, in Mount Tremper, NY, adjacent to the historic Victorian Emerson Inn. Conceived as an adjacent amenity to the Historic Inn, a simple barn building was the canvas to create an immersion spa experience. The Emerson Spa project included space planning, interiors, a meditation garden, and creation of a building facade and entry statement to fit the theme. Unfortunately, after years of successful operation, the original Emerson Inn burned down and was rebuilt across the highway and the Spa building was eventually abandoned.

Consisting of 3,975 square feet, the design engaged all five senses to offer immersion in a sensual and colorful experience. In keeping with the eclectic theme of the Victorian Period hotel reconstruction, The Emerson Spa harkens back to Asian exploration and the timeless ritual and elegance of the Japanese bathhouse, where the pleasures of bathing, beauty, and health were practiced as a fine art, and have been interpreted in the spa in a theatrical Zen setting for the rejuvenation of Mind + Body + Spirit.

An important feature is the use of sumptuous natural materials such as stone, bamboo, and sisal and the expression of Zen views through a series of moon gate windows. The lighting fixtures, floral arrangements and antiques were custom designed or collected specifically to enhance the Japanese rural bathhouse experience.

The Mandala Academy – Neurotherapy Healing Community- Model

The Mandala Academy was conceived as a model campus to heal students through experiential and neurotherapy teaching techniques. At the core of the teaching are improving brain function based on using the Brain Targeted Teaching™ (BTT) philosophy to empower students to understand the importance of how everything in nature is connected, about the relationship of space, humanity, and the environment, with hands–on experiences including: equestrian, outdoor sports, fine & performing arts, sustainable farming, technology, meditation, and neurotherapy.

The organizational concept of the masterplan and layout of the land, buildings, waterways, transportation ways, and other spaces is based on a sunflower mandala. The geometrical layout symbolizing seeds forming a growth pattern of spirals according to the mathematical Fibonacci numbers- a metaphor for the biophilic journey and educational transformation of the students. Centered around a dodecahedron amphitheater and spiritual center, the students’ journey flows to twelve primary educational activity centers designed with golden mean proportions, and back again to the center to process, share, and anchor their educational experiences. The water collection system follows the same path with collection at the main buildings spiraling back to the central water storage below the amphitheater.