The 2011–12 Wood Program involves constructing the winning competition entry as an experimental wooden building. In December 2011, one of the students’ sauna proposals, Koe, was chosen to be built. The possibility of constructing the sauna in the grounds of the Muuratsalo Experimental House is currently being investigated.

The Muuratsalo Experimental House (1952–54) near Jyväskylä was Alvar and Elissa Aalto’s summer home. When designing it, Aalto carefully studied ways of the siting the building in the terrain. At the sketch stage, the set of buildings to be placed in the landscape of Lake Päijänne already included, not just the main house, but also a shoreside sauna, plus a boat and swimming jetty by the shallow bay and rocky shore. The relationship with the surrounding nature is extremely important in what is one of Aalto’s most important works.

Aalto’s original log-built smoke sauna was drawn in 1953–54 and built on natural rock. The sauna is a fluent combination of the folk building tradition and Aalto’s characteristic flexible design.