In May 2021, I finally began sketching and looking for free wood on Ebay Kleinanzeigen. The goal was to recycle materials to keep the building cost as low as possible while making the construction as durable as possible.

The generous people of Brückengrün allowed me to build the sauna in their warehouse and even provided me with a starting point: an old steel stacking rack.

Fastening wooden beams to the steel rack resulted in a strong basic structure that can be moved by a hand-forklift. Subsequently, I cut an old wooden floor into planks, making up the walls.

For the roof, we used schindles. For the flooring and and the inner walls, we repurposed an old wooden floor and profile wood that we picked up for free. The insulation were left overs. Only the electric oven, I bought second hand.

Sauna is what got me through the Finnish winter. It’s a bizarre place. The Nordic climate makes you live in extremity. Every year, there is a time of eternal light and sunshine generating absolute ecstasy, and a time of early darkness, producing a kind of shared solitude, a complete nation entering hibernation. 

It’s weird how living in extreme physical conditions can generate this serene and balanced way of life. Living in Finland was utterly boring and very wholesome at the same time. The experience of polarity is triggering––understanding the paradoxical nature of our existence through dark days and cold feet, and through sleepless nights under a sun that never sets. Also the sauna is a (wo)man made machine to experience polarity. Undressing, acknowledging your personal bodily integrity, stepping into a wooden box to be naked collectively. Inside, it’s warm and dry but you’re sweating like a horse. Outside, it’s cold, there is oxygen and space to breathe. Finding tranquility in extremity. 

Already on the opening evening, there was a scene I won’t easily forget. Looking through two sheets of Ikea glass shelves that make up the small window in the sauna-door, I could see two grown up men, squatting naked on stone tiles and hosing each other down. Knowing they only met the day before. Sauna can mediate an intimate connection without words or substance (ab)use. Let's sweat it all out.