EFFE’s Cabanon outdoor sauna: Turning up the heat in the garden

Where do you like to sauna? Pandemic confinement has given us confidence that all life can be conducted under one roof - including our mental and corporal care. We now expect wellbeing to be tackled within the structure of the home - through the integration of biophilic design and the allocation of designated spaces for wellness practices. But what if you have the mind for it but not the internal meterage? Italian wellness brand Effe have turned their attentions to finding a solution.

The Fins have had the answer up their sleeve all along. Sauna culture arguably started in the Scandinavian nation - not in a cleverly reassigned walk-in cupboard space sandwiched between the wet room and the laundry - but in a communal heated structure situated outside. For a more familial version you don’t have to give up dreams of a dressing room or a study - just have enough outdoor space to slot it into.

Design writer, Emma O’Kelly has spent the past few years immersing herself in the realm of heat therapy, visiting 60 saunas across Scandinavia for her book on the subject, The Power of Deep Heat (Welbeck, due to launch later this year). “In ancient Finland and the Baltics, the sauna was a pharmacy, bathhouse, birth place and death bed,” she says, highlighting that immersion in nature and icy water is traditionally as much a part of the process as the heat therapy itself.

“Today, the wilderness sauna, perched on a shore of a windswept lake, is the measure by which all others are judged,” she continues. “There’s nothing better for the soul than sparking up the stove and sweating it out before chilling with a cold dip and beers.” Or for the lack of a lake, an outdoor shower or tub.

It might be seen as the opportunity for a functional folly of architecture in the arboretum, or a discreet retreat made to blend in with the herbaceous borders. But there’s no need to self-style the outdoor sauna as the concept is being embraced by experts of contemporary sauna design such as Effe. The Italian wellness brand’s most recent launch is the modular Cabanon, named for LLe Corbusiers’s famous cabin, complete with curtained deck, and designed by Rodolfo Dordoni in collaboration with Michele Angelini.

A modernist medley of heat treated aspen wood and corrugated aluminium, Cabanon is Finnish in style and made with all the finesse and technical expertise we have grown to expect of Italian design, along with a dose of Mediterranean nostalgia to inspire the details. “Effe came to us with the idea of a sauna that could be installed outside,” explains Dordoni.

“We could draw on our experience for the actual design but, as it was a sauna, the most natural thing was to dig deep into our memories. The first thing that came to mind were beach huts, where warmth and nudity created a feeling of freedom that today we would call wellness. The Cabanon design is intended to be reminiscent not only of the shape of the hut but these feelings too.” It comes in two models - one for gardens and one for urban terraces, both with colour options (moss, brick or cement) to allow it to integrate into its surroundings, and both featuring a hand-held shower.

For Effe, it represents a full circle for the brand, who, styled originally as Effegibi, took the Finnish sauna as their starting point 35 years ago and worked to integrate it with the ingenuity and imagination of Italian design into contemporary life. Lately this included Yoku, a version clad with shelving that would allow it to seamlessly blend, like a piece of furniture, into an interior living space. As fashions evolved Effe incorporated steam and hammam culture into its offerings, but always with designs made to bring heat therapy firmly indoors.

The journey has returned Effe’s sauna-design to the Finnish roots of its inspiration, giving us exquisitely conceived wellbeing spaces outside in nature, which we also now acknowledge is the golden ticket to sound mental health. Cabanon is the ultimate cocktail of Scandinavian salubrity and Italian design.

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