Saunas and cold plunges in Camps Bay, built for the slope

Steel into the retaining wall

Plots are terraced and steep. Cabins sit on galvanised steel posts bolted into the existing stone retaining wall, with the floor frame levelled above the fall — nothing new cut into the terrace, no load added to a wall already holding the garden up.

We set the glass towards the Atlantic and put the plunge behind it where the ground is wider. It is the reverse of the usual layout and it is what the site asks for.

Most Camps Bay owners start by looking at saunas for sale in Cape Town and then realise the slope decides the format. On this hillside a four-person cabin with one glass wall usually lands in the upper half of our band once the steel posts and the carry are added — our guide to sauna prices in South Africa shows exactly how those two lines are built up.

The south-easter

Cape Town's summer wind is relentless on this side of the mountain, and it strips heat off a glass wall and makes an unsheltered plunge a very short experience. We shelter the plunge behind a screen or a wall and turn the glass out of the prevailing wind rather than facing it.

Winter is the other extreme: driving rain off the sea. A deep drained rainscreen cavity is not a refinement here, it is the reason the cabin survives.

Getting it up the steps

A truck stops at the road and everything goes down or up a flight of steps by hand, usually early in the morning. We measure the tightest turn during the survey and size the panels to it, and we price the carry as its own line.