The VALA sauna was designed and built in summer 2017, within the framework of the 10-day design and making summer school FLOODED, organised jointly by the Department of Interior Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Estonian Forest Management Centre.

Building a sauna embraces various aspects of architecture and interior architecture as well as various climatic and cultural aspects. It provides a great opportunity to focus on an important building typology in Nordic culture, one that has been present in the lives of Estonians throughout history, from birth to death.

The sauna ritual is intertwined with water –in this case, taking people directly onto the Soomaa streams which at least once a year floods the roads, meadows and yards of the region, creating an unusual, fascinating new world.