Snow rooms are where the wealthy hide out during heatwaves. For the ultra-wealthy, that old adage is no longer just about poise, it’s about climate mastery. While record-breaking heatwaves continue to stifle Europe and the United States this summer—causing fights over air conditioning units in France and record wildfires in Spain—heading to the Hamptons is starting to feel like a baseline move. Today’s elite are going to extraordinary lengths to manipulate their microclimates, from morphing mansions to underground snow rooms.
“Today, because of the climate, luxury is increasingly about adaptability—spaces that change character depending on the weather; roofs that open and glass walls that disappear; brise-soleils that track the sun; wellness spaces that transition from hot to cold,” says Grant Kirkpatrick, a founding partner and design principal at KAA Design in Los Angeles. He is currently designing a Las Vegas estate (where the outdoor thermometer read 109 degrees Fahrenheit during a recent site visit) with a pool and entertainment pavilion—its retractable glass roof and walls allow it to remain air conditioned when closed or opened to the elements during milder desert evenings.
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It is less about creating a bunker from the heat and more about designing environments that respond to changing conditions throughout the day and across the seasons, he explains. Other design pros have fielded recent requests to design interior spaces that change the season altogether. Snow rooms, enclosed caverns of ice and snow, sometimes incorporating gently falling flakes, are the latest at-home flex for some of the world’s wealthiest. Tyler Slater, the COO and co-owner of The Spa Butler, a Plano, Texas, company that both manufactures and installs snow rooms, has seen a noticeable uptick in inquiries and sales for snow rooms in private homes this year.
A standard 7-by-10-foot model starts at $128,000 but Slater notes that most installations are not standalone. They are typically incorporated into a larger home wellness suite. Increasingly, that setup includes an ice bath, the more intense relative of the überpopular cold plunge. Dallas-based AD PRO Directory designer Chad Dorsey pairs these spa amenities inside the home with shaded outdoor showers for quick heat relief when in the backyard. Think of it as the chic version of a cooling spray from the hose.
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Underground retreats
For a chill capitalizing on the earth’s natural thermal mass, move underground. In Princeton, New Jersey, design studio JZA+D transformed a client’s basement into a 2,000-square-foot “cooling retreat,” with a home theater, gym, lounge, and a wine-tasting room maintained at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the ideal temperature to serve white vintages. A rack of winter coats nearby can keep guests warm while they indulge.
Starting at about four feet below grade the temperature of the earth is remarkably consistent, usually no warmer than 55 degrees Fahrenheit, explains managing partner and lead architect Joshua Zinder. The earth, in direct contact with the basement walls, draws heat out and away. The design strategy not only keeps residents cool, but also their food supply. Joseph Carline, a partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design in New York, has seen a rise in traditional root cellars in luxury homes. These provisions pantries offer subterranean low energy preservation of produce, charcuterie, and fine wines, the architect says. With more of his clients requesting large edible gardens, safe summer storage is imperative.
