Bota Bota Unveils Sid Lee-Designed Floating Spa Pavilion in Montréal

Key facts

• Bota Bota unveiled its first new vessel in over fifteen years last July.
• The new Pavillon measures 1,858 square metres and was designed by Sid Lee Architecture.
• Jean Pelland, principal partner at Sid Lee Architecture, led the design and also received the original mandate after the Émond family acquired Bota Bota's first vessel in 2008.
• The Pavillon is positioned as a social venue, while the Bateau (formerly L'Escale) maintains a strict silence policy.
• The Bateau originated as a retired ferry that carried up to 50 cars and passengers between Sorel and Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola along the St. Lawrence River.
• New amenities include panoramic sauna windows, nearly 15-minute Aufguss rituals led hourly by a guide, monumental cold plunges, and skylit hot tub halls.
• The expansion adds a universal changing area for guests with reduced mobility and improves changing rooms, lockers, and administrative areas.
• The design features exposed steel structure inspired by naval architecture, tubular pipes, slender pilotis, and biophilic elements like spruce and native plants.