Saunas for an island, a port and a mountain

Zanzibar and the coast

Salt in the air every day, coral rag underfoot and humidity that never lets anything dry. A4 stainless throughout including fixings nobody sees, sealed end grain before assembly, deeper drained cavities, a ventilated void under every cabin, and humidistat-controlled extract on anything enclosed.

Coral rag makes an excellent plinth and an excellent plunge basin, provided there is a proper waterproof substrate behind it in any wet room. Makuti thatch gives shade and looks right, and needs detailing against wind uplift rather than being laid on.

Dar es Salaam

Humid mainland heat without the constant salt of an exposed beach. Ventilation is still the main design decision, but fixings can be a grade lighter a few kilometres inland and plant enclosures do not always need sealing.

The advantage here is logistics: everything imported lands at the port, so a Dar project waits on trades rather than on shipping.

The north: Moshi, Arusha, the crater

Moshi sits under Kilimanjaro at several hundred metres and the Ngorongoro crater rim is around 2,300 m. Nights up there are genuinely cold, which is where a sauna needs no explaining at all.

We apply an altitude correction to the heater and insulate the floor as well as the walls, because highland camps sit on cold ground. The plunge, conversely, barely needs a machine.

In short

• Three specifications: island, mainland coast city and highland north
• A4 stainless, sealed end grain and humidistat extract on Zanzibar
• Altitude correction and floor insulation at Moshi and the crater rim
• Coral rag and makuti used properly, with substrate and uplift detailing