Effe brings the forest home

From shiatsu to shirodhara, traditional eastern therapies have been percolating through sedentary Western lives for some time now, each promising to be the one that will banish the blues and control stress-induced mental and physical decline. The latest therapy to arrest our attention and sensory receptors is forest-bathing, which is also eastern but not so ancient.

Originating in Japan in the 1980s it issued from government-led research and was intended to counteract burnout and reconnect its people with its national forests. Two hours of mindful immersion in woodland was said to reduce blood pressure and stress hormones, improve concentration and memory and boost the immune system. The principles of the therapy resonate strongly with today's global urban population, who are learning fast that the best medicine for modern ills is to experience the great outdoors and nature.

Back in 2017, when confinement was still voluntary but becoming an unhappy outcome of home-working, pioneering perfumer Barnabé Fillion made a trip to Japan and on his return brought his ideas for Hwyl, a forest-themed perfume heavily charged with therapeutic natural scent molecules, to the beauty and wellness brand Aesop.

Hwyl captured the Hinoki forest and dark green, earthy accords, and has been followed by a plethora of perfumes and essential oils, from Forest Lungs by Nue Co to Earl of East’s Shinrin-Yoku essential oil blend, all designed to transport the forest and its health-giving spirit to your space. Now Effe, the Italian-born maker of beautifully crafted saunas and hammams, is bringing more tools to the picture with the launch of Yoku, a series of wellness apparatus inspired by the Japanese art of forest-bathing.

Perfectly timed to furnish our more quarantined lives with a healthful escape within our homes, the designs for Yoku are Effe at its best. For 30 years, Effe has sought to advance the technology of spa facilities such as the Finnish sauna, Turkish hammam, sensory showers, tepidariums and frididariums, while refining the materials and the finish of the structures, and offering customised solutions for integrating them into both public and private spaces.

The Italian designer of Yoku, Marco Williams Fagioli, introduces a sense of natural woodland into his design of the sauna, sensory shower and hammam, which can be installed separately or combined in different ways to make a complete spa system. Additionally, the design extends into a home setting with integrated shelving, which, depending on its positioning, can form a wall of objects that decoratively screens the glass front of the sauna, (with plants for the full forest effect) or branches off to the side, connecting the structure to a home environment. 'The filter-bookcase brings the same sense of protection that we might feel while sitting among the trees of a forest,' says Fagioli.

Emphasis is placed on the woods and their finish in the simulation of a forest – vertically arranged around the walls to give the impression of being surrounded by trees, and naturally finished, slats are cut from heat-treated aspen, or American walnut – taken from renewable sources. 'The types of wood we have chosen are fundamental,' explains Fagioli. 'Their all-natural essence enhances the experience and involves all the senses – in particular the visual pleasure (thanks to the shades), the tactile pleasure (natural wood), and the olfactory pleasure (perfume emanating from the type of wood). Each provides a slightly different experience but they are united by the ability to enhance the senses.'

A heat unit is incorporated into the lower bench of the sauna, which declutters the space to enhance the sense of calm. Smoked tempered glass and hand-etched metal sheets are worked into the structure, making a bridge between the natural and designed worlds, while elegantly marbled, hard-wearing grès porcelain stoneware is used for the walls of the shower and hammam. All the materials are responsibly sourced and there is strictly no plastic in the mix.

We might once have considered home saunas and steam rooms a luxury of the exceptionally well-heeled, but oh how a few months locked down can change priorities. Give us a heated forest inside our four walls, and we can take on the world.

© Architonic