A ridiculously good book on Ridiculously Good-Looking Saunas

Having grown up in a place where my experience of saunas were places that tended to be inhabited by eccentric men with questionable political opinions (not to mention personal hygiene) it wasn’t until I made it to Sweden that I realised that saunas could be beautiful. In Sweden, they have saunas with normal people in them (who understand personal space as well as how immigration works) that look like they were designed by a sauna-loving architect rather than just being bolted onto the end of a gym or swimming baths by some cowboy builders for a laugh. To be fair, since those hot and heady days I spent sizzling away in Stockport council’s saunas the more Scandinavian approach has been embraced in the UK. As now more and more of us have started to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of a sauna as well as the benefits to cardiovascular performance and help in reducing neurodegenerative diseases that they bring. Embracing this newfound appreciation, Gestalten are about to release a book that offers us a tantalising glimpse into the wonderful wooden world of seriously suave saunas. We’re talking about Hungary’s four-legged mobile ‘Bivak’ Sauna, Sweden’s super shiny ‘Solar Egg’. Japan’s spiralling SAZAE set up and Canada’s Nimmo Bay Sauna that’s only accessible via paddleboard or kayak. Proving that we’re slowly becoming a valid part of this relaxing revolution, the book does contain impressive entries from our own shores too, with the Highlands and Devon both getting some well deserved coverage. However, I think we still need to spread the word in certain sectors of the UK that the more ridiculously good looking a Sauna is, then the more inclined we’ll all be to use them to sit and sort our heads (and bodies) out.

‘Ridiculously Good-Looking Saunas’ by Gestalten will be available from 24.02.26 HERE.