History of the Sauna
The smoke sauna is the traditional, 'original' type of Finnish sauna. In a smoke sauna, there is no chimney. As the sauna is being heated, the smoke rises through the stones on the stove into the steam room and escapes through a vent in the wall. When it is hot
The Muuratsalo smoke sauna is situated on the shore of the lake in a sandy cove. Alvar Aalto made sketches of the sauna and Elissa Aalto prepared the working drawings. In addition to the steam room, the sauna building contains a changing room. The sauna was constructed on stones from the shore selected by Aalto and the building logs were obtained from trees felled on the site.
A special type of timber blocking was used in the construction of the sauna. The idea is always to turn the narrower ends of the round logs in the same direction in order to achieve a firm result. The sauna has a sloping turf roof.
text: Hanni Sippo | photo: Maija Holma 1996 Alvar Aalto Museum/Photo Collection