A museum piece close to nature
Art Sauna in Finland by Mendoza Partida and Bax Studio
© Marc Goodwin
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With their take on a sauna, the architects from Barcelona have enhanced the Gösta Serlachius Art Museum with an inviting, very special place. The museum was established by paper manufacturer Gösta Serlachius (1876-1942) in the small western Finnish town of Mänttä. The website nordic.info calls it the “museum in the middle of nowhere”.
© Marc Goodwin
Art in the great outdoors
Which is to say that apart from boasting one of Scandinavia’s most significant private collections, the museum offers plenty of ways to experience nature as well. Not for nothing has the museum gradually moved its exhibition path outside.
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In 2015, the Spanish architecture team surrounding Mara Partida, Héctor Mendoza and Boris Bežan – then known under the studio name MX_SI – designed a large extension structure for the Serlachius Museum. The Art Sauna now follows as a second project.
© Marc Goodwin
A special sort of table
The new building, which measures nearly 300 m² and stands on the lakeshore, encompasses a changing area with sanitary facilities, a lounge with a kitchen and wine tastings, and the cylindrical sauna that protrudes upwards. The first two zones are connected via a funnel-shaped foyer. Guests reach the sauna only by crossing the wood-decked terrace from which rises the Candela Table. This is an impressive, dramatically overhanging table sculpture that is made of concrete and whose name pays homage to the Spanish-Mexican architect and pioneer of concrete formwork, Félix Candela (1910-1997).
© Marc Goodwin
© Marc Goodwin
Contrasting materials
As on the terrace, the contrast between stone grey and wood brown characterizes the entire new structure: grey composite stone covers the floor; the facades are of profiled prefabricated concrete components, and the interior cladding is primarily of wood. In the sauna, radially arranged wood cladding covers the floor, benches and ceiling in equal proportions interrupted only by the door and a window overlooking the lake.
© Marc Goodwin
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On the other hand, the lounge conveys a sense of security in a completely different way, for four wood-clad ceiling vaults arch above both the room and an 8-m-wide panoramic window that faces the water.
Architecture: Mendoza Partida Architectural Studio, BAX studio, Planetary Architecture
Client: Gösta Serlachius Museum
Location: Joenniementie 47, 35800 Mänttä (FI)
Structural engineering: Toni Kekki
Interior design: Rafael Berengena Maynegre
Landscape architecture: Gretel Hemgård
Building services engineering: Sweco Talotekniikka
Site management: Ramboll
Gallery
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