MFA Friday Clip: Finnish Architecture – Review 2020: Sauna in the Yard

MFA Friday Clip series presents videos of the latest biennial review projects. This week's theme: Sauna in the Yard by Mattila & Merz.

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SAUNA IN THE YARD Raseborg, Finland, 2017
Mattila & Merz

The sauna is located on the outskirts of the Fiskars village. It is built as a traditional dovetail log construction, with two volumes symmetrically placed under a large, yet light, gable roof and surrounded by a terrace hovering above the ground as an extension of the bottom logs. One volume is a hot room with a traditional wood-heated stove, and the second volume serves as a small living and resting room. In between them is a terrace for bathers to cool down.

The building is a modest one. “Design” takes on a second role to crafts and everyday poetics. The architects have drawn on local resources to realise the project. While the log frame was prefabricated in Ostrobothnia, its dovetail joints were made by hand. The custom-made windows, doors and hatches are also made locally, and the terrace planks were fixed on site with pegs of ash wood. The project is based on the mundane and almost understated: the way in which the opening between the volumes frames the landscape below, the building’s relation to its surroundings, and its integration with the local craft community. The architects have resisted over-designing the elements of the building and demonstrate a confident approach to materials, tradition and crafts. This is underscored by how effortlessly an improvised walkway built by the owners of the sauna using leftover materials, is integrated in the project.

The sauna demonstrates an architecture that observes, learns from and performs traditions and then quietly adds its own design layer, by way of the symmetrical plan and a clever balance of all its elements, just hinting at the presence of “architecture”. Resisting historical pastiche with modern construction on one side and making a sharp contrast between the new and old elements on the other, the sauna is a natural, yet modern, addition to the cultural landscape of Fiskars.

Text: Martin Braathen / Jury 2020

Video: Jonni Roos, Raimo Uunila
Camera: Raimo Uunila, Atte Henriksson
Editing: Raimo Uunila, Camilla Siren
Editor: Jonni Roos
Production: Uuden Avaaja, Grape Prodictions
Subtitles: Museum of Finnish Architecture
Translation: Translatinki Oy

The Finnish Architecture. Biennial Review 2020 exhibition is open until February 28, 2021 in Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki.