Saunas & cold plunges in Marrakech medina

Inside the walls nothing arrives by vehicle. Every panel, every sack of lime and every slab of marble comes in by handcart and shoulder, and that single fact shapes the whole method.

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What the buildings give you

Thick pisé and brick walls that hold temperature, a courtyard that ventilates and lights a wet room without a single window onto the street, and drainage that already runs to a central point. A riad is the best building we work in for a hammam, and it has been ready for one for two centuries.

What it does not give you is spare electrical capacity, a straight duct run, or any certainty about what is inside a wall. We open up and look before we draw.

Access, priced honestly

We measure the narrowest point on the route — usually a turn in an alley or the first landing of a staircase — and size every panel to it. Materials come in early, before the alleys fill, and the site is swept every evening because that alley is somebody's street.

This is a labour line in the quote, not a hidden loading on the material price. On a typical medina job it is the difference between a two-week and a three-week programme.

A protected facade

Internally there is a great deal of freedom. Externally there is almost none: a new flue, a unit on a wall or a change to the roofline is a conversation with the authorities. We design plant to sit internally or set back on the roof where it cannot be seen from the alley.

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