Design for Leisure

Founded in London in 1991 by Don Genders, Design for Leisure is the rare firm that treats the wet spa as its own discipline. For more than three decades it has built saunas, steam rooms, hammams, and full hydrothermal bathing circuits — the hot-and-cold contrast rituals borrowed from centuries of European bathing — for luxury homes and some of the most demanding hospitality brands in the world.

The client list reads like a wellness hall of fame: Canyon Ranch, Four Seasons, Six Senses, Aman, and Accor, alongside architects like Foster + Partners and Heatherwick. What they buy is not a room that photographs well in a render — it is one engineered to take relentless heat, water, and use without failing, and to pass the codes those environments trigger.

Working from London and Austin, DFL runs the whole arc: concept, engineering, and turnkey installation, integrating with your architect and operator. It also owns and operates KLAFS USA. If you want a home spa that still behaves like a five-star bathhouse a decade in, this is the specialist you call before the walls go up.