Saunas and plunge tubs for Hout Bay gardens

Hout Bay sits in a bowl between mountains and sea, which gives it its own weather: damper than the city bowl, greener, and colder on a winter evening.

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A valley that holds moisture

The bowl traps damp air, and anything enclosed here needs a proper ventilation strategy — mechanical extract with a run-on timer, and a rainscreen cavity that actually drains. Untreated timber in this valley has a short life.

The upside is that the same damp cold makes the sauna genuinely valuable for a long season.

Gardens with room

Plots here are generous and often flat enough for a plinth rather than a steel sub-frame, which takes cost out of the structure and puts it into the finish. A cabin among fynbos and milkwood, with a granite tub beside it, is the local vernacular and it looks right.

Wind funnelling

The valley funnels wind in both directions depending on the season. We site the plunge and the bench where they are sheltered from both, which usually means against a wall rather than in the open.

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