The Art-Sauna expands Gösta Serlachius Museum

sakil634

Barcelona architectural practices Mendoza Partida (Héctor Mendoza, Mara Partida) and BAX Studio (Boris Bezan) won an international competition held by the Serlachius Foundation in for an expansion of its museum with construction of the Gösta pavilion, completed in Now the same trio of architects, working with the project’s Finnish architectural partner, Pekka Pakkanen, has designed the latest addition to the complex: the Art Sauna, representing a continuation of the emotional journey characterising the entire Serlachius Museum. To fully understand this concept, we need to realise that the sauna is an essential aspect of the traditions and culture of Finland, to the extent that it has been included in the UNESCO Intangible World Heritage List.

Architects Héctor Mendoza, Mara Partida and Boris Bezan designed the new space with the same logic and delicacy as their Gösta pavilion, and so one of their key strategies was to ensure that the Art-Sauna blends Phone Number List into the topography, becoming a part of the landscape, and specifically the southern part of the park surrounding the museum. In the midst of the Finnish landscape, as the path approaches the level of the water, a discreet fork in the path gently leads visitors to a „semi-secret“ place: a cosy, discreet porch preparing them for what they will find behind the door. The pavilion is built on the basis of an understanding and appreciation of natural light, with a wooden construction that is related to the forest but supported by a solid base of stone, both natural and artificial.



The result is a horizontal line characterised by the differences between the two materials, with the sauna situated below the line. Emerging only slightly out of the ground, the sauna is hidden within the slope dropping toward the lake shore, becoming a part of the landscape with its green roof. The new Art Sauna belongs to the ground, and this allows the architects to challenge traditional construction, using organic shapes that generate „patios“, catalysts of light. The sauna proper is accessed „through a singular, surprising space, an exterior vestibule, a courtyard like the atrium of the Domus of the Roman temple,“ symbolised by the cylindrical construction containing the sauna.