Sun Seekers Under Alpine Skies: A Comparative Study of Architectures and Landscapes of Health in California and Central Europe

This article presents a comparative perspective on the institution of the spa in the American West and the European Alps, with a particular focus on case studies from California that show how spas have evolved and adapted to local conditions. Here, architectural strategies as well as landscape staging and publications play an important role in the creation and design of dedicated spaces and places of experience. While the Austrian and Swiss Alps served as intellectual backdrop, Californian landscapes of health aimed at creating not copies but rather complex syntheses of western American and European spa towns. This collective image of California as healing space remains attractive into the present and is inseparable from the state’s economic success and reputation.