Finnish studio JKMM Architects built a timber sauna in the desert for over 1000 revellers to sweat it out during this year's Burning Man festival.

JKMM Architects teamed up with Finish creative collaborative Sauna on Fire to bring the traditional Finnish sauna into the depths of the Nevada desert.
"We wanted to share the sauna both as a building type and actual experience with fellow Burners, because it is so deeply representative of Finnish identity and culture," JKMM's Samppa Lappalaine told Dezeen. "We also thought bringing a sauna into the desert was so mad that we had to do it."

Called Steam of Life, the pavilion was created in response to 2019 Burning Man theme Metamorphosis, with the idea was to provide a place for attendees of the annual event in the Nevada desert to rest and relax. It was visited by over 1000 attendees during the annual event, which took place from 25 August to 2 September in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
"We felt that a desert sauna responds well to this year's theme of metamorphosis,"  Lappalaine said. "Saunas are about cleansing and regeneration ? both physical and spiritual."

The team used a minimal number of building parts to construct the circular pavilion. Timber slabs stacked on top of one another round the entire edifice allowing light to stream in naturally. Two different sizes of plywood form the ceilings, interior walls and sauna seating of the temporary construction.
"Saunas are grea...