For a city of just 11,000 people, Bromont, Quebec, isn’t short on entertainment for visitors; 1.6 million of them flock there each year to blow off steam. For the active tourist, there’s downhill skiing, mountain biking and the trails circling Mont Brome. For those looking to gear down, there are galleries, gourmet restaurants and a handful of spas. One is Balnea, which offers massages, thermotherapy and yoga on 80 acres within an 800-acre nature reserve.
In 2023, Balnea embarked on a multi-year, eco-friendly expansion of its facilities, hoping to capitalize on the slow-tourism movement that, pre-COVID, swept Quebec (and the country). Backed by $5 million in funding from the province’s Tourism Industry Recovery Assistance Program, Balnea tasked MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects and Etienne Lemay at Architecture Écologique to lead phase one: a revamped, low-footprint outdoor spa complex.
The base, a renovated terrace made of textured concrete and stone, was designed by the engineers at St-Georges Structures et Civil and appears to emerge right out of the sloping Appalachian rockface. (Many of the displaced boulders were rehomed in surrounding gardens.) The top of the terrace is warmed by heat recovered from the spa’s mechanical rooms and serves as a plinth for Balnea’s new thermal bath.
About 25 people can fit in the new 70-foot-wide bath, which, like the terrace, has its own unique heating mechanism: a biomass energy system that runs on wood pellets. The view isn’t bad either: an underwater window and an infinity-style overhang provide bathers with a panoramic view of Lake Gale. (Actually, says design director Brian MacKay-Lyons, “It feels like you’re in the lake.“) Below deck, the spa’s new relaxation room occupies the expansion’s first floor. The ceiling, wall and benches are lined with shiplap boards, forming a cozy wooden cocoon; the floor, meanwhile, is covered in sand.
The expansion opened to spa-goers this past July, but for Balnea’s makeover, it’s only the beginning. As of next summer, the on-site Beatnik Hotel—currently under renovation—will double its rooms. And a geothermal-powered greenhouse and year-round organic microfarm have just started supplying Balnea’s restaurant, Lumani, with produce. That’ll appeal to another subset of hungry vacationers: agri-tourists.
