d_parture spa

After three years immersed in urban design, I was given the opportunity to return to my creative practice by Gina Stern, a pioneer in wellness innovation and the founder of d_parture spa, whom I had first met in Paris.

Stern give me carte blanche to reimagine the architectural identity of d_parture, the world’s first full-service airport spa.

Recognized by CNN Travel as one of the “World's Best Airport Spas,” d_parture first opened in 2009 at Newark Liberty International Airport and expanded in 2012 with innovative mobile message units that brought wellness services directly to the gates of Philadelphia International Airport.

Seamlessly blending traditional Shiatsu massage, Ayurvedic reflexology, and purification-based hand and foot rituals, d_parture transforms self-care into a meaningful travel experience. After studying the brand, I proposed to integrate the colors of the chakras into its visual language, aligning multicultural rituals with the energy centers of the airport's diverse travelers.

I was responsible for conducting a comprehensive functional analysis to rationalize spatial needs and developing an architectural concept rooted in the brand’s DNA. This concept was adapted across three footprints: two kiosks and one duty-free store.

I delivered all core components of the creative and technical pipeline: material boards, photorealistic renderings, architecture videos, construction plans, supplier sourcing—collaborating with OTG and DNA Architects to navigate the Port Authority approval process through execution.

The underscore in d_parture is a diacritic symbol that replaces a letter and alters the pronunciation of the brand name.

For the kiosks, this underscore became a three-dimensional free-standing diacritic architecture. Fully modular and anchor-free, the concept could be built within 24 hours, accelerating the TAA approval process.

The underscore concept was carved into wooden topographic signs, evoking the kiosks as islands of serenity within the airport’s frantic concrete landscape. Verticalized underscores populated the façade of the Duty-Free store design, composing an abstracted Manhattan skyline, and anchoring the architecture to the brand's urban origins.

For the store, I stripped away all non-essential elements to expose the raw structural framework, designing an open-weave suspended ceiling that reveals the dense, color-coded infrastructure of the airport —its HVAC, plumbing, and electrical veins exposed like a functional anatomy. The space was grounded by a Japanese vertical garden, created in collaboration with French ecosculptor Paul Luis Duranton

The first Kiosk was successfully delivered in 2019. By then, LaGuardia International Airport approached the brand for a new network of spa locations, and the creative brief grew to include a cosmetic private label, beginning with a luxury nail polish line.

We sourced a French supplier at Cosmoprof Bologna, designed a chromatic collection plan, and mocked up launching visuals, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought the airport retail industry —and this project—to a sudden halt.

This experience taught me that resuming my practice was not an act of reinvention, but a return to natural flow. Architecture became my vehicle of reengagement. The friendships I had cultivated in Paris,  my grounding force. Exceptionally unfavorable conditions sadly clipped my wings once more, too soon —but this time, they landed me in New York City.