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Location: Rosendahl Village by the Hardangerfjord in Norway

Date: 2002

Architects: Casagrande & Rintala 

Organization: In Cooperation with the Art Students from the Bergen Art 

Photographs: Nikta Wu

Project Description

The sauna is situated in the center of the village. It glows like a lantern when the things are cooking.

The Design-Build process was an intensive workshop for the Västlands Art Academy, Norway.

The sauna celebrates the ancient but still living connection between the human-built environment and the great voice of the ocean. The Viking decedent Rosendal villagers are as natural with house building as with building their boats and the Floating Sauna lays somewhere in-between.

Anchored in the middle of the fjord, a level of privacy is maintained for bathers. Little winter daylight comes through transparent walls. At night sauna shines as a floating lantern. Access with rowing boat only. Descending swimming straight through the floor of water. Using any kind of soap is prohibited due to ecological reasons.

Used materials are Norwegian Jötul-oven, plastic walls, pinewood structure, stones, storm oil lantern, old oil barrels. The Floating Sauna is built on shore and floated on site, then anchored.

This project is possible to construct due to the warm Golf-stream meeting the west coast of Norway, keeping the sea ice-free the whole year. In Finland sea is mostly ice-covered from December to April, and this sauna should be lifted ashore in wintertime.