The magical lightness of EFFE's Aladdin Sauna and the Natural wellness collection

Saunas live in most peoples’ consciousness as heated wooden boxes - akin in their outer design to a monolithic garden shed or an arctic forest hideaway. Few have broken the mould so stylishly as EFFE, the Italian specialist of wellness design, who has consistently pushed the makeup of its saunas and steam rooms into the realm of product and furniture design. Seeking ways to integrate them not only into dedicated spa spaces, but into homes and gardens, the brand puts synergy with existing design features high up on the priority list. 

One of EFFE’s go-to designers in this mission has been the visionary architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni, who sadly passed away this summer. Lauded widely for his inspired vision, passion, professionalism and his role in shaping recent design history, his portfolios of table, seating, lighting and storage designs for the likes of Minotti, Cassina, Flos and Poltrona Frau are well known.

For EFFE, Dordoni brought this ingenuity and lightness of touch to wellness design, turning those monolithic boxes into pieces of beautifully-conceived furniture; mini architectures for interiors and gardens. Last year he melded Le Corbusier-tinged Mediterranean inspirations with Finnish sauna culture to create Cabanon, a timeless corrugated architectural piece which followed the prevailing winds by providing us with the opportunity to take spa-ing into nature stylishly; it came complete with the option of a cold-shower purge, a small terrace and pegs for towels.

His last design for EFFE, in collaboration with Michele Angelini is currently coming to market and develops new ideas of weightlessness and integration to interior wellness rooms. Its name, Aladdin, hints at the way this is achieved – like the boy’s flying carpet, so this design appears to float off the ground. A mirrored panel wraps around the bottom of the sauna inside and out, creating the impression internally that the furnishings are floating in the space, an effect reinforced by soft, recessed lighting. Outside, the reflective strip throws back the floor, blending the room into its surroundings, and reducing the weight of the wooden walls. Coming in two sizes, or made to measure, Aladdin is conceived to discretely take up its place in a home spa.

Aladdin is joined this year by Marco Williams Fagioli’s Natural, a design which adapts to three different wellness functions - the sauna, the hammam and the infrared sauna. Each cabin looks identical from the exterior, with heat-treated aspen wood cladding on three of the walls and the fourth, the front, comprising an 8 mm transparent toughened glass wall. It also strives to lighten the designs – from both the perspective of weight and luminosity. 'The perception of light was central in this project,' explains Fagioli. 'I wanted to create a window that transmits the most natural light possible but is also capable of receiving light and filter it towards the inside. The psychological aspect is very important in achieving a complete sense of well-being.'

The design of each of the interiors is consistent with its function: the sauna is also clad internally with heat-treated aspen, which imparts a fragrant smell and comfortable tactility, while a backlit glass panel on one wall makes the space feel larger; the hammam interior is clad in grès porcelain and has a choice of chrome, matte black or matte gunpowder grey fittings, while a glass panel diffuses colour therapy into the space; the infrared sauna, a treatment growing in popularity in Europe, imparts infrared rays that penetrate the skin deeply with a comfortable heat, warming the body and relaxing tendons and muscles, with a bench positioned so that the user receives the heat and its benefits from the infrared lamps directly.

'Restoring maximum well-being was my first objective,' Fagioli says of his design process for the Natural collection. But also key was its ability to integrate into existing interiors. 'It is why we chose to use natural materials and essential lines and shapes. I am convinced that it is often the details that make the difference in a project and in the case of the Natural collection there are many details that are very well resolved and at the same time almost invisible.'

Good design is often as much about what isn’t there as what is. It was undoubtedly what drove Rodolfo Dordoni’s oeuvre, and it is an ethos Marco Fagioli is pursuing too, to bring an unobtrusive, everyday aesthetic to our wellness tools.

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