Material Matters

This compact sauna, crafted from repurposed materials, beautifully showcases sustainability through its thoughtful design.

WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Tomáš Slavík

The upcycled sauna was built as a weekend DIY project when Tomáš Dvořák from ika.architekti decided to give old materials he had lying around a second chance.

“It sounds like hoarding, but when you’re an architect, you can build something out of anything. Pallets, wooden sleepers, cement-bonded chipboard, wool and other second-hand treasures – every piece has its own story,“ says Tomáš. “From these basics, we created a simple sauna concept and gradually gathered more materials—leftovers from friends and other construction projects,” he adds.

In a spacious back garden, the sauna was built on a foundation of sturdy wooden sleepers, with its load-bearing structure made from modular wooden pallets. Inside, the surfaces are lined with reclaimed planks, while cement-bonded particle boards behind the stove improve heat retention. Leftover beams and pallets form the roof, which is slightly angled to help with rainwater drainage.

One of the most innovative aspects of the project is the use of raw, locally sourced sheep wool for insulation. “We manually cleaned the wool of the largest residues left by its previous “inhabitants” (sheep) and stuffed it into the walls and ceiling structure. The inner insulation is covered with mesh and reflective foil, while the exterior is protected by facade foil,” he says.

The exterior features a dynamic wooden grid that supports corrugated fibreglass panels arranged in gentle overlapping layers reminiscent of scales. This gives the structure an organic, tactile appearance that changes with the light. | ka.archi/cs/

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