Johan
Christopher
Meidell
–
Arch
497
–
Challenging
the
Global
Vernacular
Heat & Pressure On the Finnish Vernacular in Finland and Europe
Fig. 2) A traditional cabin by the lake, twin structures with a sauna to the left in the photograph.
Table of Contents Foreword
5
Taking a Bath
7
The Finnish People
12
A Culture in Decline
16
The Revival
21
Future Saunas
25
Plan & Section Conditions in Finland
1936 Olympics - An anecdote
Appendices
References Biblography Image Credits
8 9
22
28 29 30
This paper will focus on the sauna’s role in Finland and Europe, specifically how and why it developed in Finland, the challenges the sauna culture faced in the modernized society, and, as an architectural study, modern interpretations of the finnish vernacular.
Foreword I have been a sauna bather for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Norway, where saunas are a common feature in a household or cabin, and I have visited Finland on several occations, during which I experienced the difference between modern and traditional sweat bathing. Not only am I interested in this culture, I take part in it. So, a lot of the knowledge in the following paper is based on conversations, experiences and, to some extent, educated guesses, unless otherwise noted or cited. As a norwegian citizen, it is sometimes easy to forget how easy my life is. It is easy because there is seldom anything to threten my way of life, a way of life that changes with the seasons rather than the regimes. It could have been different. Had it not been for Finland’s resistance from the 19th century through World War II, I might have been a russian citizen, in a radically different society. It is only natural that I pay homeage to them by writing about the Sauna, the finnish people’s source of power, pride, and possibly the reason they managed to resist. I believe that the Sauna is the core of vernacular architecture, in its own context, and that it embodies every lesson a young architect needs to learn. For is it not what a young architect must do; make everything out of nothing, so as to impress his forst client?
Johan Christoper Meidell December 4th, 2012
5
Statistics Population: 5.38 mill. Language: Suomi & Swedish Capital: Helsinki Pop. in Capital: 1.1 mill (ca 20%) 6
Urbanised population: 63% Saunas: ca 2 mill. Religion: Protestant/ Lutheran (ca 85%) Member of EU
Fig. 3) World Map, highlighting Finland’s position streching from 60oN - 70oN
Taking a bath Today, there are more than 2 million saunas in Finland. That is about one sauna per two and a half finn1. It suggests that the sauna is more to the finnish people than a well heated room. It is a ratio that far surpasses any other country in that respect. It is hard to describe the importance of the sauna to the finnish people in a sentence. It seems to touch on almost every aspect of their lives. The sauna is a culturally significant type of architecture that embodies the social norms, historical value, traditional building techniques and, interestingly, political history. It is incredible that such a small artifact could have such an impact, not only in Finland, but elsewhere in Europe and the world. But it was not without a struggle that the sauna maintained its position in a changing society. The word ”sauna” referes to the act of sweatbathing in finnish. There are different types of saunas today. The original one is called the savusauna, meaning smoke sauna in finnish. As a person enters the sauna, the first thing you notices is the heat. It is like a physical wall that you have to walk through. A fire has been burning under rocks for hours in advance, and as the rocks are heated to ceveral hundred degrees oC, the thermal qualities allow the rocks to send of the heat for two or three hours after the fire is put out and the smoke has been aired out. You immediately start sweating, and breathing becomes difficult at first, but then easier as the heat calms you down. The second thing you notice is the calmness and silence. There might be four or five or up to ten other people in the sauna, but no one is talking. Heads bowed, hands folded, the sauna bathers are silently con-
1) the population of Finland per 2011: 5’387’000. (World bank, 2011.)
templating the day that has passed, or they are focused on enduring the heat for a while longer before taking a cold bath. You sit down with them, nod quietly, and do the same.
Fig. 4) Map of Finland. There are over 187.000 lakes in Finland, spurring the nickname “The Land of a Thousand Lakes.”
7
Basic saunas Savusauna
Construction
Fig. 6)Shows a traditional way of rising wooden walls in northern Europe. The whole tree trunks give good insulation.
Infrared (modern) sauna
Fig. 5) Plan and section of a traditional savusauna. Notice there are different levels to sit on, so one can adjust himself to the heat. It is literally room temperature on the ground, because of the circulation.
8
Fig. 7)With small openings in the walls and under the sauna door, the cold air drives the circulation in the sauna. Some bathers stick ice cubes between the planks on the top of the walls to further the circulation.
Finnish forests in 1850
Fig. 10) Typical wood type in finnish and nordic traditional building customs. Fig. 8) The main tree types are birch, pine and Norway Spruce. Forestry is and wood export is a major economy today.
Finland - a land of forests Total area
Distribution of land area
Fig. 9) All in all there is about 4 and a half hector of forest per inhabitant in Finland. An abundance of building materials and firewood surely made the sauna common. More than 2 million saunas are in use in Finland today.
9
European distortion The silence and quietude is different from similar sweat baths cultures in Europe. The finnish sauna culture first started spreading to Europe in the 16th century, after the Protestant Reformation of the church.2 The new religious movement viewed the bath house culture as immoral and as a place of both corruption and prostitution. Further, the immoral behaviour lead to the spreading of venerial diseases, which in many cases were deadly in that time. These claims made by the church were not unfounded. The european bathing culture never had the same reason for sweat bathing, or the same mentality towards it as the finns. With the literal extinction of the european bath houses, the finnish sauna began to gain popularity. Travelors and trademen coming to Finland noted
that ”the finnish peasantry is the only one to take baths every week” (Acerbi, 1802.) And, as it may have been misused in Europe, and loaded with sexual content, the finns never deviated from what they saw as the appropriate way of enjoying the Löyly. Although the church was opposed to the bath house culture, it was not the church that advocated against the sauna in Finland. The finnish society The finns were always farmers and forest keepers. Until the industrialisation period in the middle of the 19th century, most finns lived in farms.3 The farm would consist of the wide family, and half a dozen workers who got shelter and food (in swedish: husmann = house man.) And as the sauna was heated, it was the women of the farm who would maintain the fire, make ready the bundle of birch twigs (vihta) and clear out the
2) The Protestant Church reformed the church system, and with it many of the social norms in Europe after the Reformation in 1517, spear- 10 headed by Martin Luther.) 3) (need quote, need statistic on population and population of helsinki at the time (1850-ish.)
smoke when it was heated. Then the whole family gets naked and go in the sauna together. In a farm, the family could consist of three generations, all naked together, enjoying the heat after a hard day’s work in the cold air. Children are brought up in proper sauna customs by their parents from early on. They are tought not to curse, bad-mouth others or make loud noises. There was no separate sauna for women. Men, women and children went, and still go together. Today there are various public baths in which there are separated saunas, but in a farm you could not afford to waste firewood in heating two separate saunas. The sweatbathing was not seen as a luxury to the finnish people, but a necessity. Before modern hygiene products and medicine was available, the daily sauna was the way for a
Fig. 11) Opposite left: Acerbi’s portrait of a finnish sauna in 1798. It was one of the first depictions to be made outside of Finland. Fig. 12) Opposite middle: Women cleaning off sweat after sauna. Usually, both sexes would bathe together. Fig. 13) Opposite right: whipping you back with Víhta is to make fresh blood circulate to the capillaries.
finn to maintain personal hygiene. By sweating out the dirt, and whipping his back and shoulders with the Víhta (bundle of flresh birch twigs) to increase the blood circulation to the skin. This was not the only use for a sauna in the finnish farmer society. It had a more important role than just that of a present day shower, and the finns found multiple uses for the small hot room. It was where clothes were washed, meat cured, and beer fermented. Other uses included child birth. In the 19th century, women started giving birth in the house, but some children were still being born in the sauna as late as in 1940. There are many reasons women would give birth in the sauna, given that domestic child birth was normal before the medicinal advances of the late 19th century. The sauna was less crowded than the house, and would give the necessary privacy; it was easier to get water into the sauna4 The sauna would have to be covered in hay and straw matts, and the mother would lie on the floor. It was natural to use the sauna as a place for ritual. (Helsti, 2000) A sauna session lasts for about 30 minutes, before walking outside and jumping in the water. Then, another, shorter session can begin. After three to five rounds
of cooling and reheating your body, the sauna session is over. The process has rendered you fresh, rejuvenated and with a feeling of physical and mental well-being. You change into dry clothes and go down to in the living room to enjoy a pint of home-brewed beer or scnapps, and a warm meal. The rituals of sweatbathing in Finland are nothing short of spiritual. The hot, steamy air in the sauna is called Löyly, which is not the same as höyry (steam, vapour), but a word used for this steam only in the context of the sauna. Löyly can be translated to spirit or breath or soul in Uralic languages.
Fig. 14) Map of Uralic languages. We can gather that the finnish people originally came from Sibiria, and are of the Finno-Ugric people.
4) Water was important in the process of giving birth, both for cleanliness and to help the contractiont. The shadow-side ofs Sauna birth is that pregnancy and child birth was viewed as something shameful, and the women often had to stay in the dark sauna, isolated from the community, for extended periods of up to six weeks. When the mother was ready, physically, there would be held a ”churching,” aceremony to make the mother accseptable again. (Heslti, 2000))
11
Fig. 15) Map of viking settlements in Europe from the 8th -11th century. As we can see, there was little or no viking settlement in Finland, although there was contact in the form of plundering.
12
The Finnish People
Fig. 16) The Víhta is made with a bundle of fresh birch twigs, native most of Finland.
Finland is located in the northern region of Europe, and is considered to be a part of Scandinavia. Scandinavia consists mainly of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and in a wider sense, Scandinavia includes Iceland and Finland as well. The five countries share a common political and economic history, as well as cultural. The finnish people were originally a nomad people that emigrated west from asia. They probably had some sort of portable sweat lodge similar to those of the native americans, before they settled in the northern area in and around Finland. There they began developing a more permanent sollution. The first saunas were literally holes in the ground that would be covered with the branches from pine trees. These saunas date back further that anyone knows. I assume it was lodged in the peoples mentality from the very beginning. Why it developed in Finland It is natural that the sauna culture developed in Finland and, as a branch of the same family, Estland and Karelia. The conditions in which the sauna took root were cold, often degress as low as -30oC. I suspect the sauna began as a warm shelter from the winter winds, and later, as it grew to become its own culture, it gained other uses and took on more meanings. A traditional Savusauna (smoke sauna) is a heavy wooden construction. Finland and the surrounding areas are
covered in dense forests, mostly pine, birch (broadleaf) and Norwegian spruce.5 Today, 86% of Finlands total area is covered in forest, and 67% of the land area is what they call productive forest that is traded and regrown. (Statistics from Metla, 2011) Using wood as a building material is antural, and can seen throughout Scandinavia as the traditional way of building. The abundance of wood in Finland gave every farm and town access to construction materials and fire wood. There are about 188.000 lakes in Finland, evenly spread out across the country, making accsess to water easy for most farms, reducing the fire hazard of actually havingopen flames in a small wooden house. But the water has become an integral part of the sauna ritual. It is used to cool down the body while in the sauna, it is thrown on the scorching rocks to create the Löyly (steam and vapour) and it is normal to jump in the nearest lake for a refreshing bath and cleaning during and after the sauna sessions. The question remains why the sauna is so unmistakably finnish, and not scandinavian, or russian, for that matter.
5) It is called Norwegian Spruce in english, because the english first became familiar with the species through trading with norway. In latin “Picea Abies” is native to northern Europe, Scandinavia and all of Siberia and russia.
Fig. 17) Since the christening of northern Europe in the 11th century, the scandinavian and surrounding island nations have definately developed common cultural ground.
Fig. 18) 1658: The largest extent of the Swedish Empire. Finland was under Swedish rule for almost 800 years until 1809.
But the fact of the matter is, that the finnish people are not from Scandinavia. Finland’s political history over the last 800 years are closely linked with Sweden and the Swedish Empire. But the finnish people are of a different nature, something that is evident in the finnish language. The finnish language is rooted in the east and north of Eruasia and Siberia in present day’s Russia. The finnish language belongs to the Fenno and Ugric language families, and is quite unique in the world., and very different from germanic or indo-european languages. This is important to note, as it arguments Finland’s role in Scandinavia as the ”odd on out.” Swedish occupation Finnish contact with present day’s Sweden is possible to have started during the Viking period in Scandinavia (8th century until 11th century,) during which the finnish mainland was subject to frequent
raids and plunderings. While the Vikings were exploring many far corners of the world in order to trade, learn, plunder, and conquer land for viking settlements, the finnish people remained in Finland. The finns were never vikings. Further contact was made with the Christian catholic chruch that was gaining popularity in the north of Europe in the 12th century.6 Finland remained under swedish rule from the 13th century until 1809. During Finland’s time under swedish rule, a good 800 years, the people remained true to their customs and their language. Today, about 5 % of the finnish population speak swedish as their first language, and even though it is a second language in Finland, it is not widely known. In 1809 Finland was was ceded to the Russian Empire under Tsar Aleksander I, as the atonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The finnish people remained ”finnish” through several years of attempted russification.
6) The first bishop in Finland was Bishop Thomas, in the early 13th century.)
14
7) The October Revolution of 1917 caused the collapse of the Russian Empire, and followingly the Grand Duchy of Finland, who declared independence on december 6th, 1917. The unstable political situation led to a three moth civil war between the ”Reds” and the ”Whites”, leftist- and worker movements, and conservatives respectively. The ”Whites” won the civil war with the help of german military forces.
The russification included attempts to restrict the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland, to which there was great resistance. The finnish answered with worker’s strikes, petitions and protests, both passive and later active. The attempts of russification of the Grand Duchy of Finland made relations grow worse between the finnish people and the Russian Empire, and was an important factor when Finland declared independance in 1917.7 All in all about 900 years of occupation had ended, and the finnish people still spoke finnish, continued their customs. Finland later fought off the Russian Red Army during World War II, first in the Winter War of 1939, and later in the Continuation War from 19411944 in which the Finnish Army overtook Sovjet territory far beyond the original finnish borders, something uniquely aggressive in Finland’s history of conflicts, territorial or otherwise.
Fig. )19 Map shows the Sovjet Union’s attack on Finland in 1939.
Fig. 20) ...And the following war in which Finland went beyond their original borders.
15
A Culture in Decline
Fig. 21) Typical nordic joints of corner logs, decaying.
As we can read from the finnish history in Europe, the finnish people is a people of endurance, strength and loyalty to their land. These qualities, coupled with discipline, determination and pride, is what the finns call their Sisu. Sisu is something that every finn is born with, and it is what makes the finnish people different from their neighbours, if we are to believe in it. The Sisu is why the customs of the finnish people stayed finnish throughout the foreign dominance period, and how the sauna and other traditions survived the when it was pressured to be abandoned in the 19th century. Still under swedish rule in the 18th century, there was strong opposition to the sauna culture. As mentioned, the Reformation has banned almost all the bath houses on the European continent, but the church was not a strong factor in Finland. That’s not to say that the finnish sauna was free of suspicion for being a cover for prostitution, which is likely that is was in many cases. But that was never a cause for the decline of sauna culture. It was rather economic and social reasons. Economy as a cause Many swedish economists complained that the daily use of a savusauna was an extreme waste of fire wood, and that it was needlessly expensive. Other, and more serious accusations against the smoke sauna and its frequent users, was made by swedish doctors and physicians. From what they
16
could tell, the act of sweat bathing in a savusauna could and did cause convultions, tumors, lung con ditions of a serious sort, blindness and premature aging of the skin. Many of these claims were based on the quality of air in a soot polluted environment. Bringing children into the sauna was considered sheer insanity. It is understandable that strangers to the sauna culture would be shocked at the sight of maybe multiple families going naked into a smoking room together. But instead of learning about the people they ruled, the swedes tried to get rid of the traditions. The claims of sauna causing wrinkled skin was said with a hint of racism and arrogance towards the peasantry. Who and how the swedish doctors observed these customs is inknown to me, but I assume, from drawing parallells to norwegian history, that doctors traveled from a hospital to the provinces in order to do house visits. It would be normal to stay for a period of time (up to a weeks time)
if a member of the household was ill. I also suppose that there were a greater number of swedish doctors educated on the continent than finnish doctors before the modernization period. Changes in social structure as a cause With the modernization from the 1850’s onward, the social structure in Finland saw great changes, as in the rest of Europe. With the advances made in industrial and agricultural technologies, the farms could cultivate
more land per capita, and more work was offered to strangers for maning of machines in factories and on farms. Farms grew bigger. Towns grew bigger. And soon the sons on the farm would move to the cities, or the farm would employ dozens of workers who lived where they worked. The result being that the sauna was no longer only for family, but for a larger community, either on the farm, or in public saunas in towns and in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
Fig. 22) The european and fiinish bath houses were blamed for being a cover for prostitution and a cesspool of venerial diseases. The claims were not unfounded.
17
Hygiene as a cause One of the most important factors in the decline of the sauna, is soap. The advances in personal hygiene and medicine basically rendered the sauna superflous in that respect. Suddenly, one could get clean with just the water and a bar of soap. The sauna was still used frequently, but through the modernization of society, we see how an old tradition gets stripped of its social significance, one aspect at a time.
material from wood to concrete. This greatly reduced any risk of fires spreading from the saunas, but the thermal qualities of concrete differs greatly from those of wood, and the room would take much longer to heat due to the thermal lag from the walls.8 This caused the interest in saunas to drop to a historic low.
Modern materials as a cause As material knowledge and building standards were being developed in Europe and internationally in the beginning of the 1900 -1920’s, it was inevitable that the savusauna would ”suffer” from new and stricter fire-proofing regulations. One action taken to re duce the fire hazard, was to change the construction
18
8) The concrete is much denser than wood, and absorbs temperatures at a lower pace, causing thermal ”lag,” e.g. it takes longer to heat the walls. This was around the same time as sauna ovens were moving into a stage of electric heating (1920’s), and the time spent on saunas in general was much less than it had been before the modernization period.
Fig. 23) A monument to the finnish Sisu. It says it all: down to earth, rock hard and buildt over time by mamy people. As long as there is Sisu left in the people, there will be saunas - and vice versa.
Fig. 24) Opposite: Ari Leinonon’s SeaSauna is made from prefabricated material, such as GlueLam.
“One should behave in the Sauna,
as one would in Church.” – Finnish proverb.
Fig. 25)Romantic depictions of the sauna helped to revive the declining tradition in the 19th century.
“Swedes we are no longer, and russians we do not want to become - Let us therefore be finns!” – The Fennoman Movement’s motto
The Revival So there were many factors leading up to what looked like the demise of finnish bathing culture in the early 20th century. But as we know, the sauna is still in active use, and today in many more parts of the world that just northern Europe. The finnish resistance to foreign influence is evident in their history, both early and recent. The nations impartialness is one of the reasons Finland has aquired an important role as a diplomatic nation in the world, especially between the Sovjet Union and Western countries during the Cold War. The main reason the sauna survived, was because it had evolved in Finland for a reason. Meaning, that through all the changes in social structure the finnish people experienced, they never forgot where they came from. They did not lose the Sisu. One movement that actively promoted finnish culture and traditions, were the Fennoman Movement. The Fennoman Movement was a political movement in the 19th century, when Finland was still the Grand Duchy of Finland, under the Russian Empire. After the Crimean War9 in 1856, the fennomans founded the Finnish Party, a political party whose agenda was to promote finnish culture in the face of Rusification and opposing Svecomans (promoting swedish culture in Finland). They fought for the finnish language as the official language of the nation, because it was the native language of the people, as opposed to swedish which was more popular in political circles (this polliti
Fig. 26) The Kalevala is the finnish national epic. It is collected from spoken word and songs.
cal dispute is called the Language Strife.) It was also the fennoman movement who ordered the collection of the finnish folklore and folk poetry. The folklore and and poems was then collected by the traveling Elias Lรถnnrot and published as the comprehensive national epic called the Kalevala in 1835, complete with illustrations. The Kalevala was a major success for the fennoman movement and for the continuation of the finnic culture. In the west of Finland, a lot of the folklore and poems had been forgotten when Elias Lรถnnrot arrived. Supposedly the people in the west had developed a taste for continental poetry, which rhymes and rythm were better than the finnish. So, the Kalevala was collected just in time. The sauna was often depicted by national artists in a romantic fashion.
9) The Crimean War was a war between the Russian Empire and France, Brittain and Sardinia for the control of areas formerly belonging to the Ottoman Empire. The war lasted three years, and took place mostly on the Crimean Peninsula in todays Ukraine.
21
The 1936 Olympics – An anecdote During the Olympic Games in 1936, hosted by Berlin, the finnish athletics team was quite impressive. Three of the first ten to reach the finish line in the Men’s 42K Marathon were finns, and they had a tripple win in the 10 000m. The german team was being crushed on their own field! Needless to say, the germans were very curious as to how the finnish athletes worked up their stamina. It could not entirely come from finnish Sisu? One evening the germans discovered that the finnish team had built their own sauna in the living quarters, and they immediately built one for them selves. The idea quickly spread throughout the country, and today Germany is one of the most passionate sauna nations in Europe!
Fig. 27) Finnish athletes won 19 medals in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. 7 were gold medals.
22
Fig. 28) The chronological evolution of sauna ovens until 1960’s.
The 1936 Olympics proved effective to rise the interest for saunas, with a focus on the good it could do for your health. The year after the Finnish Sauna Society was founded in Helsinki. They rapidly gained high membership numbers, and could do research on how to develop the saunas in a modern context. They have since developed the sauna ovens to a purely infrared heat source. There is no longer any smoke coming out of the old wooden door. The development of the new ovens had a huge impact on reviving the use of saunas in Finland and Europe. With the modern technologies the saunas were literally free of fire-hazards, and so they didn’t need a free standing structure anymore, but could be built into existing structures; Also, with no fire hazard, the saunas could be made of wood; The modern ovens were light, and could be exported as a product and installed in hotels or houses everywhere; they also work very quickly,
bringing the heat up to 90 0C in under an hour, making it very convenient. The economic benefits of not having to burn fathoms of wood each time made it affordable , although the electricity bill went up. All of these factors have made the sauna culture as popular as ever. Ironically, the standardized infrared sauna oven was patented by a swedish company who turned a huge profit. Still irony aside, there was a good outcome after the decline. More people are using it today than ever. And for sure, in some remote farm on the edge of the a pine forest, a family is getting naked together and rushing barefoot through the snow and into the dark heat for a good taste of Löyly.
Fig. 29) An infrared oven with no fire. It still uses rocks to hold the heat and create steam/ Löyly
23
Fig. 32) Literal interpretation of the Beer Barrel Sauna. It was common to convert used beer barrels into saunas.
Fig. 30) The Floating Sauna demands that the user goes in the lake. When the heat is on, it lights up like a lantern.
Fig. 33) Rintala experiments with spacial saunas and different materials. The effect of daylight in a sauna, i would think, changes the experience
Fig. 31) The Public Sauna popped up in 8 hours on an abandoned pier. It created a public space and made the lake more attractive.
Fig. 34) Huginn & Muninn interprets the Nordic Mythology.
Future Saunas
Fig. 35) With modern ovens, a sauna can be of light Fig. 36) Cadyville sauna, NY, tells the story of how saunas are made, by reflectand transparent material without losing heat. ing the surrounding forest in the exterior.
What is the future for the saunas? As happens after an age of technological advances and standardization, the architecture field must try to find the roots of the vernacular and interpret what once was. In that fashion, architecture turns necessity into a luxury. There are a number of different interpretations on the sauna and how to enjoy it. And there can still be more. For the sauna has touched on nearly every aspect of the finnish culture. As the paper is coming to an end, I will note down the various aspects of the sauna that can inspire interpretation by architects and sauna enthusiasts. The list is based on my own thoughts, and is not exhausted. THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS of a sauna include extreme temperature differences. From scorching heat to frozen lake in a matter if seconds. It also includes whipping your back and shoulders with the VĂhta. Can this become the main nerve of the architecture? I think so, and I think architecture can make us move more.
THE SOCIAL ASPECT of the sauna - the bringing together of family or community, and the immediate intimacy between strangers who are naked together. This can surely serve as a focal point for architecture. Think of the benefits a small community can get from a healthy place to gather friends. THE QUIETUDE - is it not the epitomy of finnish culture and introvercy? Maybe it would do us good to be quiet for a while. Can silence become architecture?
THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT is perhaps the most important. The western and northen european societies are becoming increasingly seccular, and more and more people only see the inside of cities their entire life. The sauna is needed now more than ever, so as to give a lot of people a little bit of spirit. A little bit of their own church. Is it the lights that do it? Or should we bring back the open fire? maybe it is the beer that goes with it. THE MATERIALS and techniques used in traditonal sauna building tells a chronologiacal tale of how Finland evolved to become the progressive nation it is today. Can modern saunas interpret history? And which side of the story does it want to tell? 25
A sauna is The Everything and Nothing. The true form of minimalism... nowhere on earth have a greater impact. could a box with an oven
Fig. 37) Opposite: “Flying Sauna” by H3T Architects in Czech Republic.
References • Aaland, 1978: “Sweat: The Illustrated History and Description of the Finnish Sauna, (...).” Capra Press. 1978. Paperback. Print. Excerpts at website: www. cyberbohemia.com • Acerbi, 1802: “Travels Through Sweden, Finland (...)1798 & 1799.” Printed for Mawman, Joseph. London. 1802. page 293. • Helsti, 2000: “In the era of domestic childbirth. An ethnological thesis about conflicts between motherhood and maternity education” University of Jyväskylä. Helsinki. 2000. Print. (Translation source: web: https://www.jyu.fi/ajankohtaista/arkisto/2000/08/tiedote-2007-09-18-14-41-48-590912) • Mullins, 2012: “Culture, Heritage, and the Finnish Sauna.” Historical Archeology in Finland. August 2012. Weblogg: http://histarchfulbright.wordpress. com/2012/08/18/culture-heritage-and-the-finnish-sauna/
28
Bibliography Books • Oliver, Paul. “Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World.” Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 1997. Print. • Lönnrot, Elias. “Kalevala.” 1835. Translated version (swedish) by M. A. Castrén, 1841. Print. • Aaland, Mikkel. “Sweat: The Illustrated History and Description of the Finnish Sauna, Russian Bania, Islamic Hammam, Japanese Mushi-Buro, Mexican Temescal, and American Sweat Lodge.” Capra Press. 1978. Paperback. Print. • Helsti, Hilkka “In the era of domestic childbirth. An ethnological thesis about conflicts between motherhood and maternity education” University of Jyväskylä. Helsinki. 2000. Print. • Acerbi, Guiseppe. “Travels Through Sweden, Finland and Lapland to the North Cape in the Years 1798 & 1799.” Printed for Mawman, Joseph. London. 1802. • Ylitalo, Esa (Chief-Editor). “Finnish Statistical Yearbook of Forestry 2011” Finnish Forest Research Institute. Sastamala 2011. PDF
Articles • Thomas, Bill. “The Finnish Line” Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Sunday, 03.26-2006. Print. (online edition available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032201943.html)
Websites • • • • •
Swedish Forest Agency, website: http://www.skogsstyrelsen.se/. Responsible for statistics Eriksson, Tomas. Accessed Nov 29. 2012 Metla, The Finnish Forest Research Institute, index: http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/metsatilastollinenvsk/index-en.htm. Accessed 10 oct - 3 december 2012 Finnish Forest Association. http://www.forest.fi/ Finnish Sauna Society, homepage: http://www.sauna.fi/in-english/ World Bank Data. Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?cid=GPD_1
29
Image Credits Cover: “Satellite Photo of Scandinavia” Jacques Decloitres. NASA. March, 2012 Figure 1: “Savusauna.” Finland 2009. Source: Unknown. Figure 2: “Finnish Sauna.” Photo: Anna Kulik Padzik. 2003. Colour. Published on website: http://www. trekearth.com/members/KUAN/ Accessed on nov 10 2012.
Figure 19: “Winter War Movements” Source: Unknown Figure 20: “Continuation War.” Source: Unknown Figure 21: “Finnish Log House” Fabio Bucchieri. Muurame. Shot with Canon EOS Kiss X3. 2010 Figure 22: “Woman in Sauna.” Vladimir Gorshunov. Oil on Canvas. 2006. Figure 23: “Monument to the Sisu.”
Figure 3: “World Map.” Posted by Weber, Konrad. Taken from website: http://www.reliefs.ch/kartopro.htm. Accessed on nov 10. 2012.
Figure 24: “SeaSauna.” Ari Lenonon. Sweden. Source: www.inhabitat.com
Figure 4: “Map of Finland.” Author: Oona Räisänen. 2009.
Figure 25: “Girls from Dalarna Having a Bath.” (Dalarna, swedish = The Valley.) Anders Zorn. Oil on Cnavas. National Museum of Stockholm. 1906.
Figure 5: “Plan and Section of Savusauna” Oliver, Paul. “Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Vol. 1” Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 1997. Print. Page 456.
Figure 26: “Kalevala.” Cover design by author/ collector Elias Lönnrot. 1835. Print.
Figure 6: “Wooden joints.” Oliver, Paul. “Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Vol. 1” Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 1997. Print. Page 289. Figure 7: “Air circulation diagram” Joronen, Osmo. The Finnish Peoples of the North. Website: www.uralica. com/ Figure 8-9: “Finland - forests 1850” and “Finland - land of forests Diagram.” From “Finnish Statistical Yearbook of Forestry 2011”. Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla). Sastamala 2011. PDF (Available at: http:// www.metla.fi/metinfo/tilasto/julkaisut/vsk/2011/vsk11_kokonaan_11.pdf) Figure 10: “Norway Spruce.” Marja Koistinen. Finnish Forest Assosiation (FFA.) Figure 11: “A Traveler’s Impression.” Guiseppe Acerbi. “Travels Through Sweden, Finland (...)1798 & 1799.” London. 1802. p 296 -297 Figure 12: “Women in Russian Banya.” Jim McKinniss. Pop-up PhotoBook Exhibit at Irvine Fine Art Center. California. 2011. Figure 13: “Sauna with Víhte” Figure 14: “Map of Uralic Languages.” Maximillian Dörrbecker. 2008
Figure 27: “1936 Berlin Olympics.” Photo. 1936. Source: unknown. Figure 28: “The Evolution of Sauna Ovens.” Osmo Joronen. 2012. Source: www.uralica.com/sauna2 Figure 29: “Infrared Oven.” Figure 30: “Floating Sauna.” Casagrande & Rintala. Bergen, Norway. 2002. Source: http://casagrandeworks.blogspot.com/ Figure 31: “Pop-up Public Sauna” Mjölk Architects. Czech Republic. 2010. Source: Arch Daily: http:// www.archdaily.com/78662/public-sauna-mjolk-architects/ Figure 32: “Barrel Sauna.” Photo taken from Sisu Saunas. Website: http://www.sisu-saunas.com/a/j/ barrel-saunas Figure 33: “Floating sauna typologies.” Sami Rintala Architect. Finland 2010. Figure 34: “Huginn & Muninn.” AtelierFORTE. Italy. 2012. source: AtelierForte’s homepage: http:// www.atelierforte.com/blog/works/ Figure 35:”Semi autonomous sauna.” Architect Bureau Pluss. Estonia. 2007
Figure 15: “Viking Settlements Map.” Brian Gotts. 2006.
Figure 36: “Cadyville Sauna.” Dan Hisel Design. New York. 2007. Source: Dan Hisel’s homepage: http://danhiseldesign.com/
Figure 16: “Saunavíhte.” 2009. Source unknown.
Figure 37: “Flying Sauna.” H3T Architects. Czech Republic. 2010.
Figure 17: “Nodic Flags.” Endrick Shellycoat. 2011. Figure 18: “Swedish Empire.” Maarit Verronen. 2008
30
HEAT & PRESSURE
JOHAN CHRISTOPHER MEIDELL – ARCH 497 – CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL VERNACULAR