Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio bring a Finnish sauna experience to a museum

Barcelona-based firms Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio have imbibed an integral feature of Finnish culture to the experience surrounding the Gösta Serlachius Museum of Contemporary Art in Mänttä, Finland, in the form of the recently completed Art Sauna. Combining simple striated forms with a calming interior that blends art, architecture, and landscape, the space has been described as “the continuation of the museum’s emotional journey.” Following their venture in extending the museum with the Gösta pavilion—a commission awarded by an architectural competition back in 2011—the two firms have now incorporated final touches to the project in the form of this unassuming addition, which offers an experience that is far more intimate and domestic in scale.

As an indispensable aspect of the Finnish way of life, the country’s saunas part of UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the manner in which Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio have incorporated this experience into the museum’s design is worth probing into. From the outset, the goal was to ensure that the new structure would merge seamlessly with its surroundings, both in form, materiality, and impact upon the landscape.

Situated in the southern sector of the park that enfolds the museum’s architecture, the new addition to the site is reached via a path that meanders through the picturesque Finnish landscape. Near the level of a nearby water body, the path forks towards a secluded zone where visitors will encounter the Art Sauna. A subdued porch area welcomes users to the structure, which makes use of a wood frame structure to tie it to the forest, yet, the building is itself placed on a plinth of artificial stone. To evoke the aesthetic of the wood-finished cabins that typically house saunas in the region and also roots the built form in its surroundings, the façade design employs a fusion of natural stone architecture, artificial stone, and tinted concrete forms replete with vertical striations, with retaining walls that delineate patios around its main body.

Open to light, air, and the landscape itself, the art on display within these spaces is enlivened by the intersection of these elements. Furthermore, the design team resolved to rethink the traditional relationships between the sauna and adjoining changing areas in the plan. While an internal corridor would normally suffice in connecting the two main indoor spaces under the program, here, the spatial design has introduced a public lobby that is left open to its surroundings, like the portico of a Roman temple, dressed in wooden slats, which leads into the cylindrical vessel that hosts the main enclosure of the sauna. Curated selections of artwork embellish the walls at each step, maintaining continuity with the main museum program.

Hallowed in its atmosphere, with dark wood-panelled walls that frame views of the landscape, the sauna space is an immersive environment, transporting users from their surroundings but also giving them a curated glimpse of the world they leave behind. Wood finishes dress the seating, wall cladding, and the radial ceiling, giving the interior design a monomateriality that is distinctly in tune with its spiritual ancestors from this building typology. In focus, the sole window to the world beyond presents a picture of the lake and the forest around it, with vegetation lining its sides.

Cast in prefabricated concrete, the centrepiece of the outdoor terrace between the changing rooms and the hospitality design segment of the project is the aptly titled ‘Candela Table,’ named in honour of the famed Spanish-Mexican architect, who was renowned for his graceful shell like structural designs. Past this, towards the lake itself, the lounge space presents a more cosy, homelike mood, with a plethora of seating options that can accommodate small groups or larger parties of up to 30 people.

Four wooden vaults decorate the upper bound of this zone, with a large eight-metre window maintaining visual continuity throughout the space, flooding it with natural light. The succession of kitchen, dining, and lounge spaces has been astutely arranged under the restaurant design, with a dedicated wine tasting area placed next to a fireplace on one of its corners. Interestingly the irregular shape of this block has lent itself well to the program, generating a range of potential configurations to cater to divergent functional needs. Even here, art is at the centre of each of the moments seen throughout this new arm of the museum, and its inclusion definitively cements the overall experience as more than an ad-hoc space to appreciate the wares on show. Instead the design is effectively a natural extension of the museum itself, granting visitors a final experiential journey to appreciate every detail of the surrounding landscape while immersing themselves in local culture.

Project Details

Name: Art Sauna
Location: Mänttä, Finland
Built Area: 310 sqm
Landscape Area: 1200 sqm
Client: Serlachius Art Foundation
Architect: Mendoza Partida - Mara Partida, Héctor Mendoza
BAX Studio: Boris Bezan
Local Partner: Planetary Architecture Oy - Pekka Pakkanen, Anna Kontuniemi
Design Team: Oscar Espinosa, Sereine Tremblay, Marc Sánchez, Alejandro Álvarez, Germán Bosch, Olga Bombac
Landscape Design: Gretel Hemgård
Art Curator: Laura Kuurne
Interior Design: Rafael Berengena Maynegre