The sauna is a decidedly Scandinavian touch.

The ground-floor sauna, one of the home’s central gathering spots, is built from stained alder. The electric heater is from the Finnish company Iki.

This revamped Montreal flat includes a rooftop sauna lined with torrified, or dried, cedar. Outfitted with glass paneling and oriented to capture views of Mount Royal, it is the ideal haven for this hardworking homeowner.

The lower floor houses a spa, gym, and office. A built-in bathroom by Espace Cuisine includes a sauna.

A converted attic in a turn-of-the-century building in Berlin’s Charlottenburg neighborhood asks over $4 million. If you’re looking for a modern retreat in an old-world setting, cast your sights on this charming loft in the west Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, known for its distinguished selection of shopping, dining, theaters, and museums.

A sauna is an optional feature. Cedar and concrete create a recurring visual theme from the exterior to the interior.

Achieving such efficiency and maintaining the integrity of the wetlands and woodlands on the property meant more research for both the designers and the resident—just getting approval for the siting of the buildings and the driveway took eight months—but Hague is hardly one to do things half way. “A lot of times couples engage in house-building, like birds. I'm doing this solo, more like a monk,” he says of the deeply personal undertaking.

Rydingsvärd often cooks out on his terrace, which offers a view of Mount Royal. The volume housing the sauna is clad in cedar planks that were painted black. The door and windows are by Alumilex, and the custom outdoor shower is by Avantage Plus.

Bicycle Sauna, H3T Architects, 2011 Equipped with the necessary hookups to tow behind a tandem bike, this richshaw-like contraption is a sauna that, amazingly, can fit six. Heat is generated by an internal fireplace and trapped by the polycarbonate hood.

The exterior is clad in Siberian larch, which doesn’t require paint and will develop a gray patina.

The kitchen is outfitted with a built-in refrigerator by Norcool and an AEG cooktop and oven.

The bathroom's sauna-like interior includes a deep Toto bathtub—characteristic of traditional Japanese baths. The wooden hiba paneling, chosen because it is more water resistant than hinoki, is specific to the Northern Aomori region of Japan.

A wood-burning stove from Harvia, of Finland, heats the sauna. The pavilion’s rough-cut pine walls are treated with tar, a preservative that yields a time-worn aesthetic.

Salminen built the bunk beds out of birch, Finland’s most plentiful tree species, for the couple’s children.

Italian Imported Dual Glass Steam Room & Sauna in Master Bathroom

Entrance West view

A collection of vintage furniture, including a rattan armchair and a drafting table, is gathered around the terrace fireplace, which shares a volume with the hearth in the adjacent living room behind. Outdoor sconces are from iGuzzini.

Connected to the main house by a narrow bridge, a three-story cedar tower with a sauna at its base recalls a tree house. The screened-in second level includes a table and chairs for enjoying an outdoor meal, while a swing on the tower’s top level provides a perch to take in the surrounding birch trees.

On the second floor lies a timber wood sauna with two-level seating. “The sauna box itself was custom and pre-fabricated,” says Kampshoff.

Visitors are meant to progress from level to level at their leisure. “The ritual of the sauna is going into the sauna box, jumping into the cold water, and then relaxing,” says Kampshoff. “All concrete elements are simply stacked on another and there is a gap of light between each one, offering breathing space.”

The house is divided in two: on the left, the main house consists of an expansive kitchen, living, and dining space, plus sleeping accommodations. On the right, a smaller structure holds a sauna, shower, and ski wax room. The house’s length is oriented along an east/west axis to maximize strong southern light and provide views of an aspen grove.

The one-man sauna is created by three architects at modulorbeat, Marc Günnewig, Jan Kampshoff, and Sebastian Gatz. They were inspired by the nature of the former factory site, which reflects the changing state of manufacturing in the region. “When we arrived, looking for a location, [we thought] it was so beautiful how the nature came back to the industrial site,” says Kampshoff. “We transformed it into a space with an urban quality.”

House M-M Floor Plan

The slim, 25-foot-high tower adds up to a mere 140 square feet, spread out over three levels.

Salminen chose flame birch for the cabinetry for its remarkable wavy wood grain.

This one-man sauna in Germany is created by three architects at modulorbeat, Marc Günnewig, Jan Kampshoff, and Sebastian Gatz. They were inspired by the nature of the former factory site, which reflects the changing state of manufacturing in the region. “When we arrived, looking for a location, [we thought] it was so beautiful how the nature came back to the industrial site,” says Kampshoff. “We transformed it into a space with an urban quality.”

The view from the top of the tower. “Work is leaving our region and we have a huge area that we don’t know how to develop,” says Kampshoff. “If you look into the history of work in this region, we always had big companies. It’s all disappeared. We came up with the idea of how we deal with these work sites. The sauna is the opposite of work—it’s relaxing."

The bookshelves lining the walls of the living room were inherited from family.

The home also features an elegant sauna—this is Finland after all.

A sauna that looks out to the lake.

The sauna structure includes a small deck.

The serene wood-clad sauna.

The same Daltile wraps the sauna interior for continuity.

The woodburning sauna stove is made by a Finnish company, IKI.

Lights in the sauna reveal when it’s in use.

Queenstown gets cold in winter, hence the installation of a sauna. Outside, the landscaping was kept deliberately casual, with rock walls and gravel paths.