Nomadic Sauna

Design and build community project of a portable sauna. An experience that promotes intimate social interaction in a public area and a strong physical exchange with the environment. The sauna is built using the most common building material in the country Pinus Radiatta (4×2), it takes no screws or nails, and it is a tense structure system where the wood acts in compression from inside to the outside and the steel cable in tension from the outside to the inside. In the centre of the dome structure, a plywood ring transfers the horizontal forces from side to side, this piece will also hang the oven when the sauna is to be heated in such a way, allowing the flue to go through it. The wooden structure receives a canvas envelope sawed to assume its geometric shape, being attached to the inside of the dome structure and supporting panels of insulating material that sits in between the structural pieces. The efficiency of the system allows the structure to span 6100mm (diameter) with a 90mm material. There are 2 possible ways of operating the sauna: the original native American Indian way, heating up rock on a big boom fire to later on place them in a hole located in the centre of the space or heating up an oven that hangs from the middle of the structure.