The Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design: A Handbook for Holistic Finnish Sauna Design

by Lassi Liikkanen, Gavan Smith (Editor), Mikesch Muecke (Editor)

Recent studies have established Finnish sauna bathing as a source of numerous health benefits. To enjoy the long-term effects, as well as immediate gratification from sauna bathing, one needs a proper Finnish sauna. For the first time, this book presents the wisdom which has been accumulated across centuries by Finnish builders, designers, and researchers, to perfect the sauna design. It instructs the reader to master both tangible and intangible, visible and invisible elements of a sauna. The book has a special emphasis on the sauna experience, living up to a belief that short-term satisfaction is the first step towards long-term health benefits. This book is presented as a handbook for experience-driven sauna design. It covers all necessary aspects needed to create a functional, healthy and pleasurable from heating and air quality to interior design. It features several examples of contemporary Finnish sauna designs and outlines why a true sauna experience is so much more than merely “a hot room”. The book is based on the author’s intensive research, which spans five years, an extensive bibliography and dozens of expert interviews. He heas authored 200+ articles about sauna on his website, called Saunologia.fi. In 2019, he published a book (in Finnish), called “Hyvien löylyjen salaisuus” (roughly translated as ‘the secret of great steam’), which was released by a national publishing company, Rakennustieto. Now, he wants to reveal the Finnish wisdom of sauna design to the non-Finnish speaking audiences. This book instructs the reader to understand how Finnish saunas are designed in order for them to provide a pleasant, vitalising and health-improving experience. The book is not a DIY manual, but provides adequate information for professional designers and competent craftsman to design functional Finnish saunas. For sauna enthusiasts, the book provides explanations on why a sauna can provide both desirable and unwanted experiences. The Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design unveils the secrets of Finnish sauna design and construction for international audiences and, for the first time, reveals what it truly takes to create a great, Finnish-style sauna experience. Although Finns enjoy sauna for the sheer pleasure of it, the goal of the book is to support the design of saunas in which time passes unnoticed and health benefits are easy to reach. The book is constructed around the author’s four-faceted model of the sauna heat, air quality, interior design, and sauna culture. The first three elements of the book will provide concrete and research-supported arguments about how different sauna design choices affect the overall experience. These parts are direct adaptations of the Finnish original. the mysteries of the sauna stove and stones, specifications and examples Air what’s in the sauna air? Mechanical and natural ventilation solutions Interior ceiling, benches, walls, floor, windows, lighting, electronics, safety, and ergonomics Additionally, the book includes a fresh introduction into Finnish sauna the practice, the concepts of sauna, and its history. Together with a review of essential sauna technology innovations of the past 150 years, this part helps the reader to understand why Finnish saunas are built the way they are – at times almost precisely as they were a hundred years ago! This is a book for professional designers and architects, DIY constructors, and home renovators (sauna owners and enthusiasts). Suitable for reading on special topics on undergraduate / graduate level architecture studies.

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2021

Reviews

[Alexander Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't really read such narrowly focused design books before, but we'd gotten it into our heads that it would be amazing to have a backyard sauna, and this book kept being recommended again and again as the definitive resource for understanding what's needed to make a sauna amazing. It's worth noting off the bat; the book wisely steers clear of any specific health benefit claims beyond simple relaxation and joy. I appreciated this as the internet is rife with dubious or poorly supported health claims, and every source I see pushing them (particularly without citation) loses my interest quickly. The book had a good bit more of what I'd describe as history and cultural anthropology than I expected, and a very good discussion of the differences between sauna traditions in Finland, Germany, Russia, and to a lesser extent other countries with much newer sauna cultures developing.

The book is rich with technical recommendations on everything from dimensions and materials of the cabin, benches, and windows, the types of heaters, stones, etc. What I really appreciated were the explanations; Liikkanen takes the time to explain why certain design choices are beneficial and provides data tables, photos, and plots to drive these points home. Within these discussions is woven the message to not necessarily chase absolute perfection in a design, but rather find one that works for you and hits as many of the targets as possible. Honestly that bit was refreshing, questions asked around various sauna forums often prompts some pretty dogmatic responses. Having someone who is considered authoritative in the sauna design space say, "Electric heaters are totally fine, you don't need to burn wood or be subsumed in smoke for it to be a 'real sauna'" was encouraging.

The one downside to having read this book is realizing how poorly designed many of the commercially available saunas in the US are. Not simply because they don't cleave to the Finnish traditional designs, but because the design choices cause stagnant pockets of air, uneven heating, stratification, and other physics-driven outcomes that unquestionably produce worse experiences for the users or cause long term maintenance issues. Liikkanen goes to lengths to emphasize that the Finnish way isn't the only path to a very good sauna; good stones can be found on every continent, cedar is just one material that works well, and so forth. On reflection, this market failure shouldn't be too surprising, it's a very niche area of design. The last few pages described the difficulties in getting the book published, requiring funding grants from sauna industry groups, Finnish cultural organizations, and eventually support from the architectural press that published it; the audience for this book isn't enormous.

I'd of course recommend this book to anyone thinking about building or buying a sauna, but also to anyone curious about the whole notion of using a sauna and understanding the cultural background.

[Sergiusz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've found here a lot of tips how properly create my own sauna :)