Sauna + Outdoor Room

Preston, WA

Our clients for this sauna project have an architecturally distinct home on a rural property surrounded by Department of Natural Resources forest land. They love spending time in nature and hosting guests year-round. When many social activities were relocated outdoors during the pandemic, they realized a covered open-air entertaining space was missing from the property. The desired functions for this outbuilding included a dry cedar sauna room, cold plunge tub, outdoor shower, changing area, a fire pit and outdoor gathering space. These program elements were to be contained within a well-crafted structure that highlighted the natural beauty of the woodsy setting.

The owners identified a location to the southeast of the home where no old growth trees would need to be removed to accommodate the proposed structure. Two nurse logs were relocated to the perimeter of the area to be cleared of brush, minimizing disruption to the densely forested site. 

The outbuilding was designed as a singular continuous floor and roof with a gradient of enclosure appropriate for each of the program elements. The dry cedar sauna room is insulated for heat retention and fully enclosed with board and batten siding. At the transition from heated to unheated space, the vertical siding battens continue as a slatted wood screen for privacy around the cold plunge tub and changing area. The fire pit and surrounding seating area has fully open sides. Steel X-bracing connects the timber columns and roof beams providing shear stability and anchors the pavilion to the concrete slab and foundation.

The big roof slopes up to the east to allow more generous views into the forest. Windows located at eye level from the sauna benches direct sauna users’ gaze out toward the grove of Douglas Fir beyond. Exposed aggregate concrete and tongue and groove cedar form the floor and ceiling surfaces of the timber and steel pavilion respectively. Constructed with durable materials and the fine craftsmanship of Timberworks Building, the sauna pavilion will be a lovely space for spending time in nature alone and together for generations to come.