When you enter the front doors of the Turbine boutique hotel & Spa, you’ll find yourself in a space that is at once familiar (luxury boutique hotel) and unexpected (industrial powerhouse turned holiday haven).
Look up: you’ll see steel beams; look down: glass panels reveal the levels below; glance sideways: brightly painted pipes twist and turn as though mid-function. That fusion of function, form and story is what makes a stay here an experience.
The steelwork and piping might shout industrial, but the soft furnishings, natural light and design themes soften the feel, delivering both uniqueness and comfort.
Although the glass has the same carrying capacity as concrete, many guests are concerned about stepping onto it and would rather stand on the edge and peer down.
Each colour on the pipework represents the purpose for which they were used.
There are signs erected throughout the hotel to inform guests what these colours represent.
The restoration was completed under the auspices of the relevant societies, who inspected the work and signed off on the quality once completed.
A certificate to this effect can be found on the wall in the reception area.
Few hotels tell their story as visibly as the Turbine. Guests arrive and almost immediately become curious, exploring the pipes, the turbines, the repainted infrastructure. History becomes curiosity, and curiosity becomes delight.
Instead of trying to hide the pipework, it has become the centrepiece of the hotel’s design.
If not filled with machinery and pipe work, the various spaces are utilised as intimate dining areas.
Rather than cordoning off the industrial features behind glass, the design lets guests touch, walk beside and dine around them. Here, the past is not museum-static, it’s living.
I asked the General Manager if the machinery would work if the power were reconnected and switched on.
Her response was, “Perhaps”! Again, a tribute to the quality of the restoration.
But guests need not be concerned about a turbine accidentally starting up, and the control panels, although restored, are not connected.
Another corner, another machine.
Almost as many gauges as a modern high-performance motor car.
The bare concrete ceilings and moulded perspex furniture make the mixing of the old and new seem almost seamless.
Industrial bespoke light fittings complete the look.
Now you know where Thesen Island got its name…
The colourful piping links every space in the hotel, from public areas to private suites. That piping becomes a visual cue: you’re still in the Turbine, everywhere you go.
Pipework and artwork vie for space in this corner.
As a whole, it almost looks like an installation art piece.
The art on the wall is for sale; unfortunately, the bicycle is not. I asked.
Because the space is both wide and high, and is washed with light, the pipes and valves fit in and do not overwhelm or are seen as too intrusive.
There is so much to see and explore!
It doesn’t intrude, it invites. The Turbine Boutique Hotel & Spa has taken machinery built for power and repurposed it for pleasure. In doing so, it demonstrates how architecture and story can be joined in elegant harmony, where pipes aren’t just hidden, they’re a feature.
BTW. Green pipework usually denotes cold potable water and drinking water supply lines
And the orange/brown represents fuel oil, diesel, transformer oil
So now you know.
So next time you find yourself on the Garden Route, remember: the Turbine isn’t simply “a cool hotel”—it’s a living museum, a celebration of reinvention, and a place where you get to sleep inside a power station without sacrificing luxury.
There may be no hard hats required—but the colour-coded pipework might make you want to pause, look and ask: What was this line for? And that’s precisely the fun
FYI: The light blue pipes usually carry compressed air.
Now that you have had a mini tour of the hotel, it is time to book a stay to check it out for yourself.
I can promise you that you will NOT be disappointed.
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