Ika Architekti uses salvaged materials for Upcycled Sauna in Czech Republic

Czech studio Ika Architekti used second-hand and scavenged materials to create this self-built sauna in Brno, which stands on railway sleepers and is clad in corrugated fibreglass panels.

Named Upcycled Sauna, the four-square-metre structure sits beneath an apple tree in the garden of Ika Architekti co-founder Tomás Dvořák.

The personal project was born from the studio's commitment to sustainable and local building practices, and its "desire to build something with our own hands instead of just clicking and answering emails". 

"This is what happens when you scroll through second-hand websites and when you love collecting materials that might still come in handy," said Ika Architekti.

"It might sound like hoarding, but when you’re also an architect, you suddenly have a lot of great stuff to build with – and that's exactly how we sometimes spend our free weekends as architects," it added.

Salvaged wooden sleepers were used as foundations for the sauna, which is formed of wooden pallets filled with sheep wool insulation and clad internally with spruce planks.

Behind Upcycled Sauna's stove, cement-bonded particle boards – a material made from wood and cement – are used for better heat retention. These also line the floor, which is insulated with sheep wool.

"The most enjoyable part of the construction was insulating the structure with raw sheep wool, which we acquired very affordably from a local shepherd," said the studio.

"We manually cleaned the wool of the largest residues left by its previous "inhabitants", sheep, and stuffed it into the walls and ceiling structure," it added.

Due to the inconsistent sizes of the found materials, plates and brackets were used to attach pieces together. According to Ika Architekti, these were the only new materials used in the build.

The exterior of Upcycled Sauna is clad with second-hand corrugated fibreglass panels, mounted to a timber grid and "overlapped like scales".

To give the building a "softer appearance", these panels are curved around the sauna's corners, and also used to conceal its entrance, the studio said.

Alongside the sauna, a cooling pool was created by repurposing an old mining cart and painting it gold to match the tones of the fibreglass cladding.

Other saunas recently featured on Dezeen include the Drying Shed, a red timber-clad structure in Sussex by Built Works, and The Hotspot by Oslo Works, which is perched above the rocky shore of Nesodden peninsula in Norway.

The photography is by Tomas Slavik.

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