Thanks to Architectural Digest for this:
Commissioned by Swedish housing company Riksbyggen and created by Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergström in April 2017, the mobile Solar Egg has played host to sauna bathers in Björkliden, Stockholm, and Gällivare, Sweden, as well as in Paris, Copenhagen, and Minnesota. The egg’s exterior is made from sixty-nine golden plates that are said to reflect the landscape and its inhabitants. The interior is heated by a wood-fired burner that’s shaped like a human heart.
The wa_sauna came to life on a cold winter’s day in Seattle, Washington, when architects of goCstudio began brainstorming ways to engage the water that surrounds the city. The result: wa_sauna, which was funded through the support of the local community and a crowdfunding campaign. The floating sauna is powered by an electric trolling motor and heated by a wood-burning stove.
This floating sauna was a gift for the Rosendal community, a village at the end of the Hardangerfjord in Norway. Designed by architects at Casagrande & Rintala, with a construction process done in cooperation with the art students from the Bergen Art Academy, the sauna can be reached via a rowboat (or a quick swim) and entered through a square hole in the pinewood flooring. The walls are semitransparent and resemble a floating lantern as the heat rises.
The DW Sauna in Åland, Finland, was commissioned by Denizen Works, who used local materials for the mobile structure. Built on a sledge base, the Denizen Sauna sits on land but can easily be moved to a frozen lake, where Scandinavians cut holes in the surface for their own personal icy plunge pool—followed by the warm sauna session.
Soria Moria Sauna, located at the end of the Telemark Canal in Norway, was built by Feste Landskap / Arkitektur. David Fjågesund, architect for the project, says that the site, and Dalen’s dramatic landscape, was the starting point for the project. “The characteristic silhouette of the sauna is an architectural interpretation of the steep mountainsides surrounding the Bandak lake. The wooden shingle cladding is inspired by local building techniques. Integrated in the cladding are gleaming golden shingles.” He says that the gold is a reference to local folklore. “It also references the obvious contrast which arose between the uncultivated people of Telemark and lavish upper-class foreign travelers during the establishment of the nearby Dalen Hotel at the end of the 19th century.”
Created by a team of students from the Scarcity and Creativity Studio of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, The Bands is situated in a former fishing village on the Lofoten islands in Norway. The sauna’s facilities are housed within a unique folding system made out of three folding “bands.” The bands echo strips of fabric that move independently to create a sauna and several outdoor facilities, such as a hot and cold tub and a picnic terrace. The structure rests upon a craggy pier (which can’t be seen in this image) that appears to rise from the rocks, marrying the Lofoten landscape with the waters below.
Located in Ontario, Canada, the Grotto is a private sauna that stretches along a rocky spot of shoreline near the Parry Sound. Alex Josephson, architect and cofounder of Partisans, a Toronto-based architecture studio, explains that the sauna is perched on glacier-softened Canadian Shield—a formation almost 3 billion years old—and that his team 3D-scanned the rock to immaculate detail. “The black simple form of the Grotto is intended to feel like it is being born out of a pillow of the stone and in doing so highlights three incredible profiles on it. The interior being a sauna was inspired by the idea of making a wooden geode formed by the shape of moving heat.”
As it turns out, Estonians love to sauna. And deep in the forests of Estonia, you’ll find a stylish oval-shaped sauna that’s been constructed from Siberian larch boarding. Designed by Tomomi Hayashi/Hayashi – Grossschmidt Arhitektuur (HGA), the project was assigned to reuse two old pontoons that the client had lying around—and to build a floating sauna on top.
