AIRE ANCIENT BATHS S.L.

Maintenance is by far the key of the existent centres. Without a proper maintenance AIRE could not exist. Pools opened almost 365 days per year and 16 hours per day needs from the best technical service and maintenance staff to handle everyday operations. Exposed to aggressive conditions of humidity and temperature is imperative to establish proper protocols of preventive maintenance for the installations and incorporate latest technologies for the filtration and disinfection of the water, making the client be always happy with the experience and willing to repeat.

I am glad to use the opportunity of this mind map to explain a little bit about my company and work. Several of you have asked me a few times about what really my company does and how a civil engineer is involved in the wellness industry. And the most important, I am taking advantage to share with you a real case of entrepreneurship and company development.Well, let´s start by the beginning! AIRE GROUP was born 15 years ago in Seville. It was the result of the dream of a group of investors and friends who decided to recuperate the ancient Greek and Roman bath tradition and revive this concept in restored historic buildings.AIRE creates spaces and experiences to relax the body and mind according to ancient traditions of water with temperature contrasts as elements of relaxation and health. Each AIRE is unique, located in an old building full of history and personality, but all of them share the quest to create a space for relaxation, full of calm and serenity in an experience for the senses.

It plays a vital role in promoting the business and mission of an organization. As part of our cost differentiation strategy, AIRE´s brand is well-reputated aiming to provide always the ultimate experience to the customer. In addition we take very serious the word innovation and campaigns and promotions are in place most part of the year.I have also shared a link where you can see how we are seen by the international press ;)

One of the most valuables tools I have learned during the course has been the CJM. It is on my priorities to advice for the preparation highlighting areas of importance that will help the company to discover opportunities and discard areas not valued by customers and overall can help to optimize cost. In addition, it will help to improve the CX by understating about your customers feelings and emotions when interacting with a company.I am sharing an interesting link of how to do a CJM in 7 easy steps...

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Every time a new centre is opened we try to make it big. We use several kind of push and pull marketing tools to reach to the maximun audience. I would like to highlight that we contact bloggers, celebrities and influencers to be part of our opening parties

Finally we have reach to my department. As the construction director i am in charge of delivering the project in a cost and time optimization manner. Our projects are around 7M€ budget and have a certain degree of complexity because depending of the country we have to adapt to local regulations. Our buildings are temples of relaxation, rest and care, but also charming places that blend architecture, beauty, leisure and modernity therefore sometimes we find hard time dealing with administration procedures dealing with:Change of use permitsCondom and landlord approvalsListed Building regulationsLicense permitsIn addition, we consider to be in the range of singular construction projects where we care for the ultimate details and quality of the materials and equipment used.I usually deploy a direct report for each project, generally a project manager acting as owner representative coordinating the design project with the local engineers and architects as well as supervising the construction phase build by the general contractor. Due to the peculiarity of our pools installations we keep the same pool partner for all the projects helping to homogenize in equipment and installation performance (pumps, air handling units, chillers, boilers).

After choosing the premises AIRE sign a lease contract for exploting the premises during 25 years and ask for an accurate technical due diligence to analyse the feasibility of the project. 

Conceptual design is an early phase of our design process, in which the broad outlines of function and form of the centre are articulated:Layout of the poolsDistribution of the spaceWall/Floor/Ceiling finishesDemolition workSections of the floorsIt includes the design of interactions, experiences, processes and strategies. It usually takes two months time and is normally accompanied by all required preliminaries surveys: building measurement, acoustic, geotechnical investigations, etc...At the end of this phase we usually launch the alteration permit or change of use to the authorities.

This is an essential phase where the concept ideas are developed.By the end of the detailed design process, the design should dimensionally correct and co-ordinated, describing all the main components of the building and how they fit together. However, technical aspects of the design may require further development, design by specialists may not yet have been fully incorporated into the design. On this stage we welcome on board the rest of the engineering (pool, structural, mep) who consolidate drawings for each discipline and coordinate together in consonance with the architecture. This phase usually takes 4 months. Once the execution project is ready, it is usually sent to authorities to process the construction permit.

A pre-construction stage of a path construction project where a contractors services are obtained or purchased by a client to carry out the path construction work, and to plan, manage, monitor, coordinate and control health and safety on site during the construction phase.It usually takes two months to send the complete project with or without measurements depending if the contract is fixed or re-mesurable. On this phase, we try to involve as much as possible with the bidders through conferences to address their concerns and doubts. On this way we ensure obtaining safe quotations.It usually takes another couple of months!

It is where we transform the drawings into reality! Once general contractor is awarded there is an inmediate mobilization to start the real production.There are plenty of tasks during this phase appart from build:PlanningRisk AssesmentCost controlPurchasesHealth & SafetyQualityIt needs to be everything well defined in advance to reduce the changes up to the minimun. Every change will be an impact on the budget and will increase the total project cost.This phase is the most complex one and takes usually from 9-12 months.

Aire de Seville was the first center and it was opened on the street called “AIR”, which gave the name to the whole business group. It is situated in an old mansion from the sixteenth century that a wealthy “Indiano”- the name for the men who made wealth in the Indies- built on the foundations of a Roman ruin from the first century AD. The building was completely rehabilitated to house the baths.After Seville, in 2008 Aire de Barcelona was inaugurated. This time the Baths were located in a former meat storage area of El Born Market where century old wells that had supplied the city with water were found. Under the brick vaults the Baths were situated in a careful process of the building restoration.The third AIRE arrived in Almería in 2011, this time in the Old Town Square in the center of the city. The bath has its own boutique hotel.Shortly after the company decide to open the first Aire Ancient Baths out of Spain. NY was the city chosen in 2012 and a hidden gem was created in the heart of Manhattan. Nowadays plenty of famous people and celebrities tend to visit our premises.

As you can see we are currently involved in an ambitious expansion plan. We are trying to build 5 centres in 3 years in comparison with the others 5 opened during the past 15 years. Obviously all the departments has been reinforced with international staff for the purpose in order to mitigate the cultural impact and risk arisen in our first approaches to the internationalization.It will be a huge investment in CAPEX to be able to make this dream true and there must be a total alignment and clear communication between all the departments. A few recommendations to success in the expansion plan will be given in the relation arrows...