Studio Three Sixty builds UK's largest sauna

Studio Three Sixty has built a temporary sauna that will serve as a theatre during Edinburgh's Fringe festival. The venue, designed by the practice's director Lucy Osborne, can seat up to 82 people for performances.

Osborne, who is also co-creative director of Sauna Sessions Arts Club, told Dezeen the project is conceived as a new kind of cultural space. "It disrupts the familiar architecture of sauna with the tools of theatre: lighting, surround sound and performance focus," she said.

Design and Ambition

The theatre space is located in the rear courtyard of Summerhall Arts in central Edinburgh. It was designed to evoke a traditional sauna, with Ayous timber benches arranged in a horseshoe shape around three large sauna stoves.

Osborne explained the design intent. "The ambition was for the room to feel suited to the focus required by a performance but still unmistakably like a sauna," she said. The goal was a warm, social, and collective atmosphere rather than a formal one. Ayous wood was chosen for its dark colour and soft, cool quality to touch.

The concept was born from observations by Osborne and Sauna Sessions Arts Club co-founder James Grieve. They noticed numerous similarities between theatres and saunas during their time working on projects in Norway and Sweden.

A Shared Communal Experience

Osborne and Grieve believe both spaces foster a unique communal state. "Both saunas and theatres are communal spaces where strangers share an intense, live experience together in real time," Osborne continued. She described an unspoken agreement in each place to be present and enter into a shared understanding with others.

They wanted the venue to be more than just a giant sauna. Integrated theatre lighting allows the space to be transformed for each performance. "We're trying to create a new cultural space in which to experience art whilst feeling great," Osborne stated.

Achieving this required solving significant technical challenges. Conventional theatre equipment cannot simply be placed inside a sauna, as components would overheat or fail due to moisture.

Technical Integration

The designers had to find a hybrid solution. They combined fixtures that could cope with the sauna environment with six overhead glass windows. This allows a lighting rig above the room to shine down into the space.

"That lets us bring theatrical control and atmosphere into the sauna without compromising desired heat and moisture levels during performance," Osborne explained. Keeping the heat in was another technical challenge, requiring an architecture that manages an ebb and flow of heat, cool air, water, and steam.

Externally, the structure features bright signage and includes numerous support spaces. Along with the main sauna theatre, the temporary build includes showers, changing rooms, lockers, and a cold plunge pool. It was designed to be dismantled and moved.

Performances and Hope

The venue will host shows throughout the Fringe based on the wellness ritual of Aufguss, led by a sauna master, along with dance-based "rave" sessions. Osborne and Grieve hope the Sauna Theatre will introduce some people to sauna and demonstrate how theatre can be part of wellness routines.

"We know many of our audience members will be first-time sauna goers, and that is a thrilling responsibility," said Osborne. She expressed a fundamental belief that art and culture are good for human beings, and that wellness should not exclude activities like going to the theatre.

Her hope is that great artists can harness the heat to take audiences on magical journeys. The photography is by Paul Zanre.