An interior rendering of Submersive. “We are building the World's most interesting and engaging sauna among many other fantastic experiences within the space. We are creating not just an entertainment experience or a spa experience, but access to an environment that takes people to an elevated state change,” says Corvas Brinkerhoff. Image courtesy of Submersive.

If you’ve ever been to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico, you know what a unique, fun, and sensorial art experience it is. Now, one of Meow Wolf’s original co-founders is opening a spa that will fuse ancient bathing traditions with art installations and modern neuroscience research. We can’t wait to see the creative way it all comes together.

Submersive is the latest immersive project by Corvas Brinkerhoff, one of the artistic visionaries behind Meow Wolf. Opening in Summer 2027 in Austin, Texas, Submersive aims to reimagine the typical wellness experience by merging hydrotherapy experiences, cutting edge-technology, the science behind human consciousness, and world-class art.

“Austin appreciates that creative, powerful experiences sit at the intersection of art, community, and wellness. It is a hub for forward thinking individuals who embrace new and world-changing ideas,” says Corvas Brinkerhoff, CEO & Founder of Submersive.

The Submersive flagship location on Barton Springs Road will span approximately 20,000 square feet, offering multi-sensory indoor and outdoor environments. Specifically, guests will move through a series of twelve distinct spaces that create sensory experiences through light, sound, water, and art.

An exterior rendering of Submersive. Image courtesy of Submersive.

“We’re not building a spa. We’re building a portal,” Brinkerhoff says, sharing that the location felt almost destined for Submersive. A 2017 Mic.com article that dove into the history of Barton Springs, explained that the famous swimming hole located there was considered a gateway to the spiritual world in Native American culture. Barton Springs has provided a spiritual bathing experience for generations, and Submersive will soon offer a modern portal to community wellness and connection.

To find out just how Submersive aims to radically reinvent bathing traditions, we spoke to Brinkerhoff to get all the details about the upcoming opening.

Corvas Brinkerhoff, Founder of Submersive. Image courtesy of Submersive.

Why did you decide to create an immersive wellness destination?

Meow Wolf taught me the power of immersive experiences and how much leverage environments have over our internal state. I got curious about how light, sound, art, and architecture could be deployed to get us into therapeutic states.

That curiosity really naturally blended with these ancient thermal bathing modalities: steam sauna, cold plunge, hot baths, etc. For me, underneath all of that is a desire to be as useful as I can be and to contribute to our species as much as I possibly can.

It was a step into my sense of purpose in life to create environments that don't only entertain people, but have the ability to heal them and change them in really meaningful ways.

What led you to choose Austin?

I chose Austin because it is a hub for big thinkers, world-changers, wellness, arts, and culture. It's the live music capital of the world. There's the “Keep Austin weird” ethos here.

Austin has this beautiful mix of leaning into big ideas and investing in wellness, while having space for art, creativity, and cultural expression.

Many might know your work from Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. Did your experience in Santa Fe inspire you to want to open a wellness destination in any way, and do you have any favorite spas in Santa Fe?

Going back to around 2008, 2009, when we were first getting started with Meow Wolf, I was going to Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe regularly, which is a Japanese style bath house in the mountains. And I was experiencing my first contrast therapy circuits (which I wouldn't even hear that language of contrast therapy circuit until 10 or 12 years later), but I was experiencing it, and it was undeniable how impactful and beneficial it was.

Every single time I went, I left feeling calm and focused and energized. I thought, ‘This is really powerful. Could I create immersive environments? Can my artwork make people feel this good?’ That was kind of the genesis of the very first questions that led to Submersive.

Then I spent 15 years laser beam focused on building Meow Wolf, but quietly imagining how some of these different ways of creating immersive spaces could coalesce with ancient thermal bathing modalities. I drew a lot of inspiration from Ten Thousand Waves, but also Ojo Caliente, which is just north of Santa Fe. Over the years, l became an enthusiast in general of thermal bathing, and would seek out places, whenever I traveled,

I'd look for places to draw inspiration from all over the world — spas, bath houses, and hot springs resorts.

Were there any other locations that you found particularly inspiring?

The biggest inspirations for me have been properties that have really distinct identities.

There's a property called Gora Kadan in Hakone, Japan. From the moment you enter the property, every detail is so artfully considered, architecturally, experientially.

There's laisa Energetic Wellness in Belgium, which is wildly different from anything I saw in Japan, but similar in that every detail and the entire experience design had a uniqueness and a coherence to it.

What types of artistic collaborations do you have planned for Submersive?

We have quite a few artists and designers that are attached to the project. They range from local Austin creators that we're really inspired by to internationally famous artists. We're not sharing their names yet, but it’s a rich roster of world-class artists.

Are you able to share some of the cutting-edge technology that you’re planning on featuring at Submersive?

We are creating radical reinventions of modalities with each of our different environments – whether that's a steam room or a sauna or a cold plunge or a flow tank. And we're deploying a lot of immersive technology through different types of sound, lighting, and video systems. There are rich audio visual integrations into these environments that give them a very expansive and unique expression of what otherwise would be a traditional sauna or traditional steam room.

It's a blend of content that is generated from the world class artists that we're working with and content that we're creating ourselves. Over time, we'll be using biometric feedback to learn how these environments are affecting our guests. We’ll be using that to refine the experience and modify the content and designs.

Our goal is to build the world's deepest understanding of how immersive environments can be deployed for therapeutic outcomes. In other words, how does does light, sound, temperature, etc. change us and make us better?

You’ve stated that you plan to use the science of human consciousness to draw participants into elevated states of being. How will you do this?

We’re working with scientific advisors, including Susan MagSamen, who wrote “Your Brain on Art,” and is a leading voice in the field of neuroaesthetics. She studies how multi-sensory experiences and environments impact us.

We’re also working with Adam Gazzaley from UCSF, who is a neuroscientist who builds experiments where they stimulate people through video, light, sound, smell, and different types of touch – like haptic vibration. They put sensors on the participants to study how these different forms of stimulation are affecting them, and then they create software that changes the stimulation based on the biofeedback data. They've created sensory therapeutics out of his laboratory. We're really excited about having a unique setting for this research to be applied.

There's a neuroscientist who I've spent some time with named Dacher Keltner who studies human emotions. The emotion of ‘awe’ is known to deactivate the default mode network, which is part of the brain that's associated with self-referential thinking. It's considered kind of the seat of the identity or ego. And so when we experience awe, it increases our sense of openness and makes us more pro-social, more likely to connect with other people.

The first experience that our guests have when they come into the spa is one that's designed to elicit a state of awe. We thought that's the right way for people to begin their journey at Submersive.

Do you see these journeys as social community experiences?

It's definitely a social space – this is a group experience. By all means, you can go by yourself, and have an incredible experience, but the environments that we're designing are meant to be used by multiple people at the same time.

We're not creating rooms that are one person at a time rooms; they're all communal experiences. I think that's really important when we look at the loneliness epidemic. When we look at the levels of disconnection that people are experiencing as our lives become more and more virtual and digital, people are really craving places to go and be with and connect with other people.

Wellness trends are shifting. Gen Z and millennials are spending 41% of the total wellness spend in the United States, even though it's a smaller percentage of the population and they have less expendable income. I think that speaks volumes to where our culture is shifting to.

We think it's really important to create offerings that not only service people's wellness, but give them a chance to service their social wellness and connect with other people.

Submersive’s flagship Austin immersive art bathhouse at 901 Barton Springs Rd is slated to open in Summer 2027. To get on the founding member waitlist, visit submersive.com/waitlist.

A Look Inside Submersive: the Unique Art-Infused, Science-Backed Spa Concept from Corvas Brinkerhoff, Co-Founder of Meow Wolf