This Spa Trades the Typical Playbook for Roman Civic Logic

RECESS occupies a peculiar gap in Montreal’s urban fabric. The city has no shortage of places to sweat, and cold plunges have become a wellness cliché—but it lacked a space where thermal bathing doubles as social infrastructure. Future Simple Studio’s 4,500-square-foot project in Griffintown attempts to fill that void, positioning itself as Montréal’s first social hot–cold circuit experience. Founded by Adam Simms and Marilyne Gagné, RECESS is conceived less as a spa and more as a contemporary ritual—an “ode to stillness” that encourages people to pause, reset, and reconnect with themselves and others.

Roman thermae were not primarily about health—they were where deals were struck, and social hierarchies navigated. RECESS is not replicating this model directly, but it draws from the same underlying premise: that shared physical discomfort produces a specific social chemistry that casual conversation does not.

Here, that exchange is structured into a 75-minute, cyclical experience—20 minutes of heat, a two-minute cold plunge, and intervals of rest and conversation—creating a rhythm that bridges individual restoration with collective presence. Future Simple Studio organized the plan as a linear sequence of compression and release, each zone calibrated to a different mode of interaction.

From there, an elongated tunnel wraps the perimeter, guiding visitors along a gentle ramp as refracted light patterns flicker across its surface—a spatial cue that references water before it is ever encountered. The passage opens into an all-gender locker room, deliberately hushed and efficient, functioning as a decompression chamber between city and ritual.

Another corridor of frosted glass panels leads toward the post-plunge lounge, where layers of diffused curtains encircle the room, doubling as projection surfaces for a rotating program of art installations, DJ sets, and guided breathwork sessions. Together, these elements extend the social framework beyond the thermal circuit itself, positioning RECESS as both wellness space and cultural venue.

Materially, the project is organized in gradients: cold-rolled steel and aluminum define the public-facing zones, recalling both clinical precision and the reflective depth of water, before giving way to warm oak and natural stone in the bathing areas. Emerging from the locker rooms, visitors enter a sauna environment defined by golden light and enveloping timber. At its center, a custom circular enclosure scaled for fifty people anchors the plan—far larger than the four-to-eight-person volumes typical of most thermal facilities.

The geometry is intentional: a freestanding cylinder inserted into a rectilinear shell, its monumental radius accommodating guided, performative group sessions that emphasize breath, proximity, and shared experience.

After heat comes immersion. A sculptural sequence of showers—concealed behind stone—evokes a cool, natural rainfall before leading to a communal cold-plunge pool sized for twelve, where bodies submerge together beneath blue light. The effect is both physiological and social: circulation recalibrates, endorphins release, and conversation resumes with a different cadence.

The result is less a spa than a structured framework for connection—one that repositions contrast therapy as a collective ritual in a city that has largely outsourced togetherness to screens.

To learn more about this and other works by the firm, visit futuresimple.studio.

Photography by Felix Michaud.

Leo Lei translates his passion for minimalism into his daily-updated blog Leibal. In addition, you can find uniquely designed minimalist objects and furniture at the Leibal Store.