Solar Egg, Sweden: sauna conceived as an escape for displaced residents of Kiruna
Displacement of a community is never easy or painless. The town of Kiruna in Sweden is undergoing a relocation process because decades of iron ore mining have caused irreparable damage, and yet the mining needs to continue as it is an important source of income for Sweden. The "devastating transformation" of the landscape and effect on the environment caused by the mining has sparked a lot of debate among the residents.
But to preserve the community spirit of the town, Developer Riksbyggen commissioned Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergstro¨m to design a commemorative social sculpture. The Solar Egg – a golden egg-shaped and portable sauna – was thus created on the site of the now-empty town.
The whole town of Kiruna is being shifted several kilometres eastward into a masterplan developed by White Arkitekter, which will allow mining to continue for another couple of decades. Developer Riksbyggen who is in charge of the project commissioned Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergstro¨m to design a commemorative social sculpture for the town after residents voiced fears of losing community spirit due to their relocation.
Kiruna, traditionally, was best known for its saunas. The artists, confronted with the challenge of creating this commemorative sculptural space, responded intuitively and came up with the idea of exploring a space that “unites and encourages conversation.” So a sauna was a natural derivation, and the artists beleive they are “sacrosanct places where you can discuss all manner of things – from the big to the small."
So, a Solar Egg was created; a five-metre-high by four-metre-wide golden sauna as a meeting place for residents. It comprises of 69 pieces of gold-plated stainless-steel sheets, which are then assembled to form the oval.
Currently ocated 145 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland, the egg-shaped form takes reference from the climate, with the snowy surroundings reflected in its multifaceted golden mirrored surfaces. It can and will be moved around in the area, as and when needed.
A flight of drawbridge stairs that form the doorway can be lowered down to the snow for visitors to enter. Inside, the warm feel of the pine-cladding creates a sharp contrast to the snow and steel outside. In the centre is a handmade wood-fired burner, encased in an iron cage in the shape of an anatomical heart. Filled with large stones to conduct the heat, the burner generates an ambient temperature varying between 75 and 85 degrees Celsius. The sauna's tiered seating, rooms up to eight people, consists of benches made from aspen wood.
"Landscape, mine, town, sky, sun and snow are here combined into a fragmented image that can evoke associations with the complexity spanned by today's discussion about climate and sustainable community development," said Bigert.
The relocation became necessary due to the mining company LKAB's extraction of the iron seam that runs under the town. White Arkitekter has created a masterplan named Kiruna 4-ever that details the phased relocation strategy spanning the next 20 years. The plan was shown as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014.
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