Lakeside Sauna & Pathways

This was a wellness project as much as a landscaping one — a Scandinavian-style lakeside sauna set among mature willow on a Suffolk garden, designed as a year-round retreat for the family.

We started with the pond. The existing pool was re-profiled and the banks rebuilt so the sauna could sit close to the water without disturbing the existing planting. The black-clad cabin was positioned to look back across the water through the willow canopy, with windows aligned to catch reflected light off the surface in the evenings.

Stone-tiled pathways link the sauna to the rest of the garden via a sequence of stepping stones — narrow enough to slow you down, set just high enough that they sit a touch above the wet grass. A small firepit-and-loungers area at the water's edge gives a transition between sauna and pond.

Every element here was specified to weather rather than wear — the black timber will silver gently, the stonework will collect moss, and the planting we put in along the banks will, in a couple of years, make the new work feel as though it has always been there.