Written for owners, architects and operators who are deciding something expensive. No catalogue, no promises, and no numbers we cannot stand behind.
Almost every conversation we have begins with the same three questions, asked in different accents. What does this actually cost, and why will nobody give me a straight figure. When should it enter my project, and what have I already made impossible. And, from operators, is a wellness floor a genuine argument for a guest or an expensive gesture.
The Journal exists to answer those questions at the length they deserve, before anyone is asked to decide anything. Each piece sets out the mechanics rather than the marketing: the drivers behind a budget, the reservations a drawing has to carry, the difference between a domestic specification and one that survives commercial use. Where we quote figures, they are our own published figures. Where we have no evidence, we say so.
The through line is simple. A sauna, a hammam or a cold plunge is not equipment placed in a leftover room. It is architecture, and it behaves by the same rules as the rest of the building: reserve it early and it is inexpensive; decide it late and it becomes the most difficult line in the works.
Seven headings carry almost the entire budget of a bespoke sauna: joinery and timber, heater and controls, ventilation and MEP, builder's work, glazing, lighting and commissioning. Written for owners building or renovating in Marbella, Mallorca and Ibiza, and for anyone comparing two proposals that do not cover the same scope.
Wellness is one of the few elements of a signature house that is routinely decided after the architecture is fixed. Reserved volume and ceiling heights, loads, waterproofing and drainage, sized ventilation, electrical supply, controls, documentation for permits, honest phasing, and the mistakes that only become visible once the finishes are down.
How a wellness floor became a booking argument and a rate argument. Sizing for intensive use rather than domestic use, circulation and capacity, wet and dry circuits, energy and daily operation, and the quiet cost of being the property that does not have one when the competitor does.
If you are at the beginning of a project, the piece on cost is the most useful place to start, because it makes every subsequent conversation more precise. If drawings already exist, begin with the project piece; it is written to be read alongside a plan. And if you run a property, the hospitality piece sets out what a wellness floor changes and what its absence quietly costs.
Beyond the Journal, each discipline has its own page: Finnish sauna, ice bath, hammam and red light. Owners commissioning for their own house will find the process on our page for private clients; studios and project managers will find working conditions and documentation on the page for professionals. We work across Spain, mainland and Balearics, together with Portugal and Andorra, coordinated from Madrid, with landing pages for Marbella, Mallorca and Ibiza.
We take a limited number of projects per year. Request the technical dossier and we will contact you within 24 business hours to arrange a first conversation, without commitment.
Request the dossier