Why Turkish bathhouses are featuring in hot new luxury developments around the world

Is it getting hot in here? No, it’s just the latest trend in high-end amenities for luxury apartment buildings: hammams.

Also known as Turkish bathhouses, hammams are bringing old-world steam rooms to modern apartment living in off-the-plan developments from New York to the Gold Coast.

Unlike many of their Ottoman forerunners, the new wave of sumptuous bathing spaces come with A-list architectural credentials and opulent finishes, and these communal areas are not segregated by gender. Bath wraps are also out, in favour of swimmers.

In Tribeca, the former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank building, a dashing 1912 beaux-arts tower is being transformed into a condo collection called 49 Chambers.

The condo project boasts an extravagant amenity list, including a hammam and spa space cast in honed, white Ariel marble with a lustrous covered ceiling.

In Manhattan, a 1912 beaux-arts tower is being transformed into a condo collection called 49 Chambers. Photo: Supplied

Prices range from $US2.025 million ($2.78 million) for a one-bedroom condo to $US7.495 million for a four-bedroom residence ($10.42 million).

Hammams are traditionally associated with the Ottoman Empire. Whereas Roman bathing typically involved full-body submersion, hammams favoured moving through a succession of steam rooms, followed by bathing under running water.

In traditional Turkish bathhouses, an attendant armed with soap and a rough mitt would vigorously exfoliate the skin before the bather retired to a cool room.

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The project will include a glamorous hammam-style facility. Photo: Artist impression

US agency Douglas Elliman is marketing 49 Chambers and a new Miami project called Eighty Seven Park, with condos priced from $US3.15 million ($4.378 million).

The building offers a spa with sauna and hammam-style steam rooms, its “Soul Centre”.

Prices at 49 Chambers range from $US2.025 million and upwards. Photo: Artist impression

Closer to home, developer Sunland Group incorporated a hammam in Abian, a high-rise tower in Brisbane that opened last year. The managing director of Sunland Group, Sahba Abedian, says he has experienced many interpretations of the hammam in his travels.

The hammam in Brisbane’s Abian building features a heated, marble slab finished with polished brass. Photo: Artist impression

“The difference between a hammam and a steam room is that it provides a much larger setting for relaxation, with space for people to sit or lie down,” Abedian says.

The hammam at Abian has a large, heated, marble slab finished with polished brass. Terrazzo flooring and ambient lighting add to the atmosphere. There’s also a cold plunge pool, sauna, pool, spa, treatment rooms and gym.

“The hammam is well patronised and considered an added luxury that goes above and beyond the standard offering of residential buildings, and the feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly positive,” he says.

The pool at 272 Hedges Avenue, Mermaid Beach, which also has a hammam in the works. Photo: Artist impression

Founder-director Monica Earl says increasing demand for wellness facilities is tied to the “connectivity-fatigue” of the digital era.

“I think the hammam experience is one of the most condensed versions of an off-grid experience, combining detoxification, cleansing and relaxation,” she says.