Every May, sauna enthusiasts gather on the shores of Lake Superior in upper Minnesota for Sauna Days. It is a perfect encapsulation of what sauna culture is all about: gathering together in a hot sauna with enveloping steam, without phones, and having a conversation. We all need more of this.
Colin Cabalka of Superior Saunas, the manufacturer of the Oblique.
Dan Wood, a writer based in New York, interviewed our founder Mark Hellweg and had this conclusion about the design mindset of sauna:
"This intersection of industrial design and sensory architecture, a form of physical poetry, was also coursing through the mind of Mark Hellweg, the designer of the high-end, design-forward Ratio Coffee Maker. Partnering with Superior Saunas, Hellweg set out to reinvent the American sauna aesthetic, moving away from cheap kits and generic barrel designs toward a flat-pack structure inspired by mid-century coastal cabins. Utilizing thick Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and thermal-treated Western Red Cedar, the structure’s four-inch walls create a massive, intense thermal mass. From the outside, it looks like an Eames lounge chair that unfolded, like a robot in a Transformers movie, into a functioning sauna."
Read the whole story on SaunaTimes.
