At our Culture of Bathe-ing festival in New York, the classic Airstream sauna had a magnetic draw and the steam inside did not disappoint. We dig into our archive of bathing customisations, conversions, and change-overs to bring you some of the most accomplished, unexpected and delightfully absurd. Read on to win a ticket for an exclusive conversation and bathing event exploring Social Sauna and the modern bathing movement, plus our reports from the British Sauna Summit and World Sauna Forum.
Next stop: steam
Sauna Ikitai, Japan’s largest sauna search engine, is transforming decommissioned buses into mobile saunas. For their debut vehicle “Sabbath,” Osaka-based architects OSTR reimagined the interior by swapping bus seating for sauna-grade timber while maintaining the double-seat layout. In keeping with the bus aesthetic, some of the original features are retained or repurposed – benches in the cosy rest area made from the bus upholstery, circular handles hang from the ceiling (one of which is now a thermometer), and, our favorite, a stop button that generates steam when you press it. For a similar experience stateside, we recommend Sauna Social’s converted school bus in Indianapolis.
Arita’s cable car bath
In the 1980s, the Arita Kanko Hotel in Wakayama, Japan, elevated the traditional rotenburo bath to a leisurely journey while suspended over the coastline. The “floating cable-car bath” was a novelty that enabled guests to scrub and soak or drink a beer while gliding back and forth to a nearby island. By 1989, the tubs were grounded and the resort closed, sadly ending a decade of sky bathing.
Are these Finland’s most unusual saunas?
In their 2010 documentary Steam of Life which explored male bathing culture in Finland, directors Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen unearthed some unconventional sauna conversions. One of the more eccentric finds is a retired combine harvester, repurposed for steam by a sauna-obsessed Finn. If you’re lucky, you might spot it at the Teuva Mobile Sauna Festival (more later). For those seeking a more intimate experience, there is the phone box sauna; though its transparent walls mean it isn't the best choice for those concerned with modesty.
Taka’s mobile sento
This was one of CoB’s favorite bathes of 2025 - Japanese artist and bathing-obsessive, Taka Miyake arrived in Canada, bought a truck and spent a season converting it into a mobile sento. Taka decorated every inch of the tiny bathhouse and installing authentic Japanese features like a timber hot tub and a bamboo water spout. Last year, Taka toured across the US, inviting bathers to join him at every stop and winning many friends along the way, before finally arriving in New York. Next stop Europe!
Subscriber offer: Win a ticket to an evening of conversation and bathing with Therme Group in NYC
Deborah Needleman (former Editor-in-Chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine) and Robert Hammond (Co-Founder of the High Line and President of Therme Group US) will discuss the rise of the modern bathing movement, alongside a showcase of Social Sauna – Culture of Bathe-ing by Jane Withers and Ria Hawthorn. The book explores the design, culture, and history of social sauna, tracing a path from ancient bathing traditions around the world to today’s new wave of bathhouse experimentation.
The first five subscribers to email hello@cultureofbathe-ing.com with the subject line “Social Sauna” will receive a complimentary ticket and event details. The event takes place on Tuesday, June 30, from 6:45–8:00pm.
Wild sauna architects
In the early 2010s young Czech studio H3T Architekti (now disbanded), produced a series of outlandishly inventive mobile, hanging and whimsical saunas. To coincide with the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival 2010, H3T explained that they acquired a “barely functional trailer to transform into a chassis of a new mobile sauna” descriptively titled “Sauna on wheels”. Using simple materials, they fitted it with a stove and a bench on each side. Other designs included a sauna hanging from a bridge that could only be accessed by boat through a hole in the floor, and a bike sauna.
The stretch steamer
In 2024, Luke Moran realised his dream to convert a 2007 Lincoln Town Car Limo into a sauna. Using scraps from other sauna builds, he lined the interior with red cedar, installed a stove with a side-mounted chimney and filled the trunk with timber offcuts to fuel the stove. Remarkably, the limo remains road-legal due to a convenient lack of legislation regarding onboard fireplaces. In the SaunaZine, Moran has taken his home state New Hampshire’s "Live Free or Die" motto to its most literal, sweat-inducing extreme.
Hydrotherapy haven
HAVN is converted from a 150ft U.S. Navy workshop barge built in 1943 to make rapid repairs at sea. After decades of slow decay in northern Canada, the HAVN team stripped the barge back to its bones and created a hydrotherapy deck featuring three saunas, hot tubs and cold plunge pools and an interior relaxation lounge and café moored in Victoria, Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. Book here.
Boat and barge conversions are another common typology – try a floating sauna at Sisu & Löyly, MI; new build boat Kos Sauna, NY or converted barge Fjord, San Francisco.
Steam on the frontline
In the same way Finns traditionally first build a sauna before they build a new house, the Finnish military build or bring saunas to every base, including building dugouts in remote forests during WW2. This truck-sauna built on the back of a UN vehicle and was used by Finnish UN peacekeeping forces in the 1970s.
Teuva Mobile Sauna Festival
For the ultimate in Finnish mobile bathing craziness, a visit to this biannual, volunteer-run mobile sauna festival is essential. Expect at least 50 off-beat DIY saunas - from mini caravans, to saunas on cars, fire trucks and every other imaginable vehicle – including the aforementioned combine harvester.
Estonia’s hot wheels
In Järva-Jaani, several decommissioned fire engines have been converted into working saunas and are displayed at the Järva-Jaani Fire Department Museum. This project combines the preservation of historic firefighting equipment with Estonia’s established sauna culture. The sauna can be enjoyed at the museum, or be delivered to you.
Summer’s here! Reporting from British Sauna Summit and World Sauna Forum
It’s a bumper season for sauna heads, with the British Sauna Summit in Brighton last week and World Sauna Forum firing up in Finland as I write. At British Sauna Summit, the standout for me was the rising theme of the bathhouse as a cultural space headlined by Therme’s Adam Tanaka and brought to life by Lucy Osborne from Sauna Sessions Arts Club who described their ambitious project to bring Sauna Theatre to the Edinburgh Festival this summer. Afterwards, steamers took to Brighton Sauna Festival on the beach (above).
We asked Tea Lindberg for the lowdown on World Sauna Forum in Jyväskylä, Finland on the theme of happiness.
In the opening keynote, Löyly co-founder Jasper Pääkkönen reminded us that the sauna is more than a wellness service – it is a democratic social space to disconnect and meet without titles. clothing or status. He warned against reducing the practice to biohacking, strict temperatures, or timed endurance. While health benefits attract new audiences, traditional sauna is about listening to the body and finding peace.
Most striking was the diversity of people gathered around a shared passion - entrepreneurs, researchers, sauna professionals and enthusiasts. The day concluded in the sauna village proving happiness resides in löyly and meaningful encounters.
Reports Jane Withers @janewithers.london and Tea Lindberg, visitsauna.com. Images by Florian Seemüller / EOS Sauna & Spa
News, happenings and openings
In Pin-up magazine critic Andrew Pasquier recounts the return of public bathing architecture in the 21st century
The inaugural Swimmable Cities European Forum takes place in Basel, Aug 11-12 - register here
Sauna Theatre is coming to Edinburgh Fringe, August 6-31, bringing together performance and aufguss. Book here
See Hurvin Anderson’s magnificent public bathing spaces in his show at Tate Britain in London
Can a hot tub save democracy? Architect magazine reports that Iceland’s Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2027 argues that the geothermal pool just might do that. Watch this space.
The Times documents 18 of the best baths, hammams and saunas in London
Acclaimed architects are designing the hottest saunas around the world, The Times
One last thing
How many kids can you fit in a stretch-sauna ?
We’d love to hear from you - please send a DM, or email hello@cultureofbathe-ing.com