Find Your Zen in a Wood-Fired Hot Tub

When the Vancouver bustle palled for Craig Pearce and his wife, Kendra, the couple decided it was time to slow life down and move from the city to Bowen Island where they would build a house on a heavily forested plot. Before their home was even finished, Pearce, founder of Union Wood Co., made his first home-improvement splurge: a wood-fired hot tub. Pearce’s love of craftsmanship and his yearning to temper the pace of life spawned Goodland, whose hallmark product makes for a most-Zen soak in the outdoors.

Inspired by two bathing traditions—the Japanese onsen and the Scandinavian sauna—Pearce added a contemporary designer’s flair to an age-old tradition. The wood-burning hot tubs are crafted in Canada, made from Western red cedar and marine-grade aluminum, a material that, Pearce points out, is one of the most recyclable around. The stove, a top-loading cubby, requires only an armful of wood and 90 minutes to heat the water. “It’s the little things in a day, like chopping wood, that to me is where we’re getting that integration into nature,” Pearce says. “Our house is literally set in the trees, which I thought was living in nature, but it’s really those day-to-day rituals that we have to do, or get to do, that allow us to live amongst nature.”