FOREVER YOUNG

Driven by the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, the health industry is booming like never before, feeding an entirely new industry. Experts expect the medical wellness market to grow to almost $8 trillion by 2030. A mind, body and soul Portfolio on trends, trailblazers and companies to watch.

Elle Macpherson

True beauty comes from within. That’s what Elle Macpherson, the Australian supermodel, believes. Today, she successfully runs her superfood company WelleCo, which sells dietary supplements at estimated annual revenues of $8.2 million. The mother of two founded WelleCo in 2014, the year she turned 50, after seeking help from a nutritionist to combat physical signs of fatigue. The model who rose to fame as “The Body” in 1986 hadn’t been getting enough sleep for years and was constantly flying around the globe. Then, suddenly, there was a lump in her breast; it turned out to be benign, but it gave her a wake-up calll. Looking fantastic as ever, she refuses to have any cosmetic surgery.

In 1996, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor created a subterranean cathedral of wellbeing: the Therme Vals spa in Graubünden (Grisons). Clad in 60,000 slabs of gray-green Vals quartzite, the minimalist building was heritage-listed just two years later and established the now 80-year-old as a pioneer of modern wellness architecture with a spiritual quality. The combination of bare skin on warm stones, darkness and light, steam and the sounds of water is still spellbinding – Zumthor factored all the senses into his design. The shy Pritzker laureate, who doesn’t have a website to this day, has a mythic reputation: “A monk of materials, with standards so exacting that few clients have the patience, or deep enough pockets, to indulge his uncompromising approach,” The Guardian once wrote.