Project focus : The Little Heat Retreat

In the autumn 2023, we designed and built a garden area with an outdoor shower for Amy at The Little Heat Retreat in Norwich – a private hire sauna space. This garden was made using sustainable, local, and up-cycled materials, alongside evergreen, pollinator friendly planting. The garden included a cold water shower, made for the hot-cold cycles of sauna sessions.

We created a new pathway leading through her established garden, with oak sleeper ‘stepping stones’, leading towards a cobbled entranceway to the sauna – made with rounded flints from the quarry a mile down the road, keeping the build sustainable and the pathways tactile for bare feet.

A gravel garden, again using aggregates from around the corner, was made using rounded pea gravel as mulch for bare feet, and up-cycled bricks we found tucked away in the garden as stepping stones. We built with shower tray with shells and stones set into the top layer, and built a soak away for the cold water to drain back into the land naturally.

The planting we selected is all scented, evergreen and drought tolerant – perfect for this dry and sandy hill and for the aroma created when brushing past towards the shower. A mostly Mediterranean styled mix including santolina, lavenders, pittosporum and verbascum.

Visit the space here, to experience the sauna and garden for yourself.