Coldwell Spa

The brief was unusual and completely clear. A place to steam, cool off, eat, and stay up late with friends, set in the woods behind the main house.

Everything followed from that. One story with a tall middle, dark stained timber outside, and stacked firewood built into the facade so the wall itself tells you what happens here.

It rains a lot in this part of Washington. That is not a problem to solve. It is the reason a building like this makes sense.

The site is a wooded terrace below the main house, far enough down the slope to feel separate. We put the building there so the noise stays away from the house and the view stays in the trees.

The plan grew out of a sequence rather than a room list. Where you undress, where you steam, where you cool off, where you sit afterward with tea. Get that order right and the building almost draws itself.

The main room is one tall space under an open timber frame, and this is the dining end of it. The table sits by the glass, and the trees outside do most of the decorating.

Behind it stands the back of the stove, a heavy mass of stacked stone with open niches for pottery and a lit panel above. It separates dining from kitchen without a wall.

This is the piece the whole project was built around. A wood fired stove with an open arched mouth, big enough to actually cook in, laid up in stone from the floor to the ridge.

It is not decoration. Bread, pizza and skewers all come out of it, and on a wet evening it is where everyone ends up standing.

The wet room sits behind the fire. A single wall of backlit onyx runs the length of the shower, lit from behind so the stone glows instead of reflecting.

The floor is dark stone with a channel of river pebbles underfoot. You come out of the heat, stand here for a minute, and the room does the rest.

Past the dining end the room turns quiet. The ceiling opens into the roof frame, a lit grid of niches fills the end wall, and the seating is low and deep.

This is the after part of the evening. Nothing in here asks for attention, which is exactly the point.

The quiet end. Lime plaster, one long dark credenza, a single small piece on the wall, and nothing else.

After an hour of heat and cold water a room with nothing in it is a relief. That is the whole idea behind this part of the building.