neastudio

Latitude Sauna revolves mainly around the issue of scale, or the sense of expansion and contraction that it affords. The interlocking cubes of the Latitude Light series become inhabitable in the form of a sauna built into a cliff by a Norwegian fjord in Tjome, Norway. The structure’s southern face consists of a large black semi-opaque PV panel angled sixty degrees for Tjome latitude. The amorphous thin-film panel mirrors the surroundings while filtering the sun’s entry into the sauna. A thin slit running across its three upward-tilting faces represents the local sun path from east to west.

 In the all-important aim for artists, architects and designers of the 21st century to bring humans and planet closer together, the skillful conduction of natural light becomes an essential tool. Latitude Sauna is designed to foster interdependencies between scales, especially the scale of the human being with the “’nature’ outside”. In its constricted, dark and overheated space, the sauna arouses heightened sensory perception of the vast nature outside.