Floating Sauna, drawing: Marco Casagrande

Floating sauna for the Rosendal village by the Hardangerfjord in Norway.

This cosy Floating Sauna designed by Casagrande & Rintala Architects in collaboration with Bergen Art Academy students in 2002. Marco Casagrande, Sami Rintala and Christel Sverre were the leaders of the workshop.

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.

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

Marco Casagrande, Sami Rintala and Bergen Academy of Art and Design: Floating Sauna.



Marco Casagrande, Sami Rintala

Christel Sverre

Students: Kristin Lian Berg, Mona Brekke, Simen Dyrhaug, Jenny Therese Eriksson, Mahlet Ogbé Habte, Marja Ristiina Nickel, Ragnhild Ohma, Anne Marte Ruud, Mona Aspen Simonsen, Thomas Aspeland Sivertsen, Elin Solvang, Sverre Strandberg, Karolin Tampere, Sveinung Unneland, Elisabeth Wahlström.

Dimensions: Platform 5 x 5 m, Sauna 3 x 3 m
Materials: Wood, Construction Plastic, Oil Drums, Jötul stove

Constructed at Hardangerfjord, in Rosendal village during 2 - 13 Sep 2002.

6th Cycle of 20+10+X Architecture Awards winner / World Architecture Community 2010.