Sitting on the brink of a waterfall near Loddgard farm in central Norway, the sauna, designed by Formløs Architecture, is simple and sculptural. As if cut from one piece of wood, the sauna hovers one foot above the ground and stretches out over the water. The idea for the sauna came from a wish to bring festival guests together in an atmosphere where all social constructions from daily life can be forgotten and the opera singer from the capital sits shoulder to shoulder with the local farmer. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Surrounded by dense forest you only hear the water flowing in the river and the occasional strike of the axe as bathers chop more firewood for the wooden stove. The site itself and the walk up to it gave inspiration to the design. Arriving on a tractor road leading from the farm, you have to cross the river on the farmer’s bridge to reach the bank with the sauna. This walk from the public to the protected and the entering of a closed room where you may well sit all naked right next to a total stranger gave us the ideas for the orientation of the different parts of the structure.
