Rocky knob sauna

On a remote mountain farm in West Virginia, a series of rudimentary saunas had been constructed since the late 1970s. Each iteration advanced the relative permanence of the structure. Unfortunately, the last iteration burned down a quarter-century after the first. For another 15 years, the site - at the edge of a spring-fed pond - lay dormant, setting the stage for another generation to reimagine the sauna.

This time around, the project emerged as a research-driven design/build. Blending students, professionals, and craftsmen throughout the process, this sauna became an experimental undertaking where participants learned by doing.

TYPOLOGIES IN RITUAL SWEATING
As part of the design process, the team researched sauna traditions throughout the world. This research directly impacted the design of the sauna which abstractly references those traditions while simultaneously reflecting vernacular farm outbuildings from the region. These references are evident in the structure’s form, craft, and materiality. Regardless of the material, form, and craftsmanship, the sauna has always participated in the cultural lifeblood of the farm.

This project is genuinely off-the-grid, naturally lit by the circadian rhythms of the sun and moon. Heat is maintained using active and passive techniques that blend a robustly insulated building envelope and a small, high-efficiency wood-burning stove. The stove itself was created in a similar design/build manner, having been the grand prize winner of the U.S. Department of Natural Resources Next Generation Wood Stove Design Challenge. Rough-cut lumber was repurposed from earlier structures on the property, used extensively for the exterior cladding, interior walls, and both interior and exterior benches. Even the new dimensional lumber used to cast the board-formed concrete was repurposed as rough framing. The cladding was charred on-site to avoid petroleum/chemical-based finishes.

The siting is purposeful, with the new structure located directly on the remnants of scorched earth where the previous sauna structures once stood. By reusing the original footprint, the new structure limited disturbance to the natural environment while being deferential to the history of the place.

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