This event has passed - watch the video of the talk below.
This event is part of the 2021 London Festival of Architecture under the theme of "Care".
Introduction
Regular sauna bathing was attributed to the international success of early and mid-Century Finnish athletes. They made a habit of bringing sauna to the games, including the 1948 Olympics in London. Designed as complete recovery and relaxation facility with a hot room, cold showers and massage tables and kitchen the athletes used them to prepare for and recover from competition. Originally built in the Olympic Village in Richmond Park. After the Games the sauna building was relocated to Maidstone in Kent to the Reed Paper Mills sports grounds, where it supported Reed's ideals of workplace sports and well-being. Much loved, the workers' clubs used the sauna for decades, even after the demise of paper mills and until it was gradually forgotten by almost everyone, except its local, most loyal users. It represented in many ways both the wood-building tradition, modular systerm and the mass produced modern post-war innovation.
This was also a beginning of a trade between Finland and the UK on prefabricated modular system buildings.
What can we learn from this modular system to make sauna accessible to everyone for post-pandemic recovery?
Find out more in our talk as we will be joined with amazing curators from the New Standards Exhibition at the Finnish Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Where they showcase the projects and impact by Puutalo Oy, the largest export organisation for prefabricated wooden houses in the world, In the era of post-war reconstruction.
We also delighted to have Andy Merritt joining us to talk about the Barking Bathhouse - a pop up Sauna during the 2012 Olympic Sauna.
Speakers
Andrew Merritt (UK), Something & Son – the architects of the Barking Bathhouse during the 2012 London Olympics
Laura Berger, Philip Tidwell, Kristo Vesikansa (FI), Curators of the New Standards exhibition at the Finnish Pavilion, Venice Biennale
Mika Meskanen (UK / FI), Co-founder, Chair of British Sauna Society
Paul Reynolds (UK) Founding Director of Tapestry , Chartered Landscape Architect, Design Council Expert, Non Executive Director HWFI Community Development Trust (CDT)
Hosted and moderated by
Wendy Liu – Architect RIBA, Arts & Culture Officer, British Sauna Society