Skroget, a reclaimed-timber public sauna on the harbour in Båtsfjord, Norway

Nearly 500 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, the fishing town of Båtsfjord now has a public sauna on its harbour. Skroget was commissioned by the municipality as an accessible gathering place by the water, and it was made by Rare Collectiv, fifteen international architecture students from NTNU's Design in Context course. They designed it in two days and built it in ten.

The pavilion runs almost 40 metres along the shoreline, and its structure is meant to recall the ribs of a ship's hull. Nineteen identical timber portal frames slope down towards the sea to frame the view, while the south side opens up to give seating that is sheltered from the wind and catches the sun. Walking through, you move from an open-air fire pit past communal seating, changing rooms and showers to the sauna at the centre, with the repeated frames filtering the light along the way.

Everything, benches and tables included, is cut from reused 3×7-inch municipal timber, with uniform sizes and angled joints. This came to designboom as a reader submission rather than as reporting, so check locally for opening times and access before you go. For anyone heading to Finnmark's far coast, it looks like a fine place to warm up beside the Barents Sea.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 27 October 2026. Read the original

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