Saunas & cold plunges in Nyarutarama

What the plots are like

Walled compounds, established lawns, a lot of them backing onto the Kigali Golf Club fairways. Access is good — the roads are made up and a truck can usually reach the gate — so panels arrive whole instead of being carried in.

Because the ground is level, we can set a cabin on a basalt or brick plinth rather than a steel sub-frame, which takes cost out of the build and puts it into the finish.

The real constraint here is your neighbours

Compounds sit close together and evenings are quiet. A chiller running at the boundary wall is the one complaint we hear in this neighbourhood, so we place plant on the house side of the garden, behind planting or inside a niche, with the grille facing away from the wall.

The same applies to lighting. A glass-fronted cabin lit at 8 pm is visible from three gardens — we specify warm, low, under-bench light rather than a downlight that turns the cabin into a lantern.

Typical brief

A four-person cabin with a full glass wall onto the lawn, a teak or thermo-aspen plunge tub within a few steps, and a rinse shower. Diplomatic and NGO tenants often want it demountable, because the lease is three years and the sauna is theirs.