There is little doubt that Stockholm is a city of sauna-goers. All year round, from early morning to late into the night, the city’s residents can be seen emerging from wooden huts, a trail of woodsmoke coming from the chimney, and lowering themselves into the deep brackish waters of the Swedish capital’s shoreline.
But, for locals and visitors alike, getting access to one of these saunas can be a bit like getting into the world’s most exclusive private members’ clubs: the most popular waterside venues have years-long waiting lists of thousands and when new places open up they disappear in minutes. While a proportion of spots are sometimes bookable to non-members, they are difficult to come by.
The sauna arriving in Hornstull, a water-facing neighbourhood on the island of Södermalm Photograph: Robert FlinkenbroIn an attempt to change this, the city of Stockholm will in June open its first publicly run sauna with the mission of bringing “sauna for all”. The new facility, in Hornstull, a water-facing neighbourhood in the largely residential island of Södermalm, is a pilot project which authorities hope will be the first of many city-run, membership-free saunas.
Pia Karlsson, project manager from the City of Stockholm’s transport office, said the 5.5m Swedish kronor (£436,573) project had been born of a desire to move away from the prevailing model of “sauna for the few”. The municipality had wanted a sauna that was “100% accessible, so no membership. Accessible to the city’s residents and our guests”.
The Swedish capital has relatively clean water, the ideal geographical setup, stretched over several islands, and plenty of willing customers for bada bastu – the Swedish term for bathing and having a sauna – made internationally famous by Finland’s Eurovision entry last year, Bara Bada Bastu (Just Take a Sauna).
Despite all this, the city has been slow to capitalise on demand for accessible quayside saunas. Many are behind lock and key, privately owned by either member associations or individuals.
The Sthlm Sauna in Stockholm, which has a queue of 13,000 people waiting to become members. Photograph: STHLMThe scarcity is thrown into particularly sharp relief by the sauna scene in its Nordic neighbours. In the Norwegian capital, Oslo, despite a huge rise in popularity over the last decade, it is relatively easy to get a same-day sauna spot at one of the seven Oslo Sauna Association floating saunas. In Helsinki, Finland, where the ability to sauna is considered an essential part of daily life, there is an abundance of public saunas and even a waterside community-run sauna.
A very Finnish tradition: first you go and sit in a hot steamy room and then go outside to cool off with a beer. Photograph: Ilpo Musto/AlamyStockholm’s new sauna arrived by tug boat on Tuesday. The site, which is overhung by weeping willows and where users will be able to swim, used to be home to Liljeholmsbadet, a 1930s floating public bathhouse that was removed last year after falling into disrepair. The city is also building a sauna jetty that will also be open to non-sauna-goers.
The new building, green in colour, which takes inspiration from the city’s historic painted wooden water pavilions, was designed by architect Dinell Johansson and built by Marinbastun, which also built the Oslo Sauna Association saunas.
An artist’s impression of what Hornstull Sauna, Stockholm’s first public sauna, will look like when it opens in June. Illustration: Ange Dinell JohanssonKarlsson said: “A thought that we had with us from the political mission was sauna for all and a place for everybody. We are a public pontoon and a public space on public land. We wanted that to permeate the site.”
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