The winners of the Iceland Slow Sauna competition reimagine Nordic bathing in one of Iceland’s most spectacular volcanic regions — creating another compelling reason to slow down on a journey through Lake Mývatn and the Diamond Circle.
A new reason to slow down in North Iceland
In the volcanic landscapes surrounding Lake Mývatn, architecture and travel are being brought together through one of Iceland’s most elemental rituals: the sauna. Organised by Buildner in partnership with Slow Travel Mývatn, the Iceland Slow Sauna competition asked architects and designers to imagine a compact retreat beside Þúfa – Private Homestay, combining sauna and greenhouse within a single experience. The location gives the project particular resonance. Mývatn sits on Iceland’s famous Ring Road and is one of the essential stops on the Diamond Circle, North Iceland’s roughly 250-kilometre touring route linking Lake Mývatn with Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi and Húsavík. Travellers can spend several days here moving between waterfalls, lava fields, volcanic craters and geothermal landscapes rather than treating the lake simply as a stop between destinations. For anyone planning an Iceland itinerary, Mývatn is therefore a natural place to slow the pace. Explore Lake Mývatn tours and experiences, or make the region part of a wider North Iceland adventure.
From sauna to the geothermal landscapes of Mývatn
The competition brief feels inseparable from its surroundings. Just east of the lake, Hverir reveals the geological forces beneath Iceland through steaming fumaroles, bubbling mud pools and vividly coloured mineral terrain. Nearby, travellers can walk through the extraordinary lava formations of Dimmuborgir, climb the rim of the Hverfjall explosion crater or visit Grjótagjá, the small lava cave once used for bathing. That makes the sauna’s sequence of heat, cold, shelter and exposure feel less like an imported wellness concept and more like an architectural interpretation of Mývatn itself. Travellers wanting to experience these landscapes can browse Lake Mývatn sightseeing tours, including itineraries combining the area’s volcanic and geothermal highlights.
Linear Ritual takes first prize
First prize, as well as the Buildner Student Award, went to Linear Ritual, designed by Prusha Kadir, Joel Jansson and Emil Sandström of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Their proposal arranges the building as a progression from arrival through greenhouse and shower to sauna, allowing temperature, humidity, light and views to change gradually as visitors move through it. The steep roof recalls Icelandic vernacular architecture while responding practically to the northern climate, and the restrained use of timber and straightforward construction methods gives the project a deliberately modest character. Rather than competing with the landscape, Linear Ritual attempts to sit quietly within it, combining hospitality, bathing and food production in a small footprint and turning movement through the building into the central experience.
Descending into stillness
Second prize went to Australian architects Jeremy T Anderson and Pascal Henle for Slow Sauna – Descent into Stillness, a markedly different interpretation of the same ritual. Here the visitor gradually descends into the landscape, entering a composition in which circular internal spaces sit inside a translucent rectilinear envelope. Condensation, filtered daylight and changing degrees of enclosure become architectural materials in their own right, while the double skin creates an intermediate environment between the protected interior and Mývatn’s exposed terrain. The result has an almost cinematic relationship with the Icelandic landscape: a place to retreat from the elements without becoming completely disconnected from them.
Earth, fire, water and air
The French team of Marty Ilievski, Clément Vignes and Atelier Fasea received third prize for The fourfold ritual, whose design revolves around four elemental ideas: earth, fire, water and air. A timber sauna forms the thermal heart of the project and is enclosed within a translucent greenhouse accommodating planting, cooling, relaxation and circulation. Temperature, humidity, vegetation and daylight therefore become part of the route through the building rather than merely environmental conditions to be controlled. That elemental approach has obvious parallels with travelling through North Iceland, where water, volcanic geology and geothermal heat repeatedly shape the visitor experience.
Turn the sauna into a Diamond Circle journey
Mývatn is also an excellent base for exploring farther afield. The lake forms one of the five principal destinations on the Diamond Circle, alongside Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi and Húsavík. To the west, Goðafoss provides one of Iceland’s most recognisable waterfall landscapes. Heading north brings travellers towards Húsavík, widely associated with whale-watching trips into Skjálfandi Bay. Farther east, the route reaches the horseshoe-shaped Ásbyrgi Canyon and the immense Dettifoss, creating a journey that connects geothermal landscapes with waterfalls, wildlife and some of the most dramatic geology in Iceland. Travellers can explore Diamond Circle tours from North Iceland, find whale-watching experiences in Húsavík or discover Dettifoss tours and excursions.
Bathing as part of the journey
The sauna proposals also fit naturally into Mývatn’s existing culture of geothermal bathing. After hiking around volcanic craters and lava fields, travellers can experience the region’s geothermally heated waters at Earth Lagoon Mývatn, formerly known as Mývatn Nature Baths. This connection between activity and recovery gives the architecture competition wider relevance. The greenhouse is not simply an unusual addition to a sauna; it prolongs the transition from intense heat towards rest, daylight and vegetation. Wellness becomes a sequence rather than a single activity. For travellers, that same rhythm can shape an entire day: explore Hverir and Dimmuborgir, hike around Hverfjall and finish with a geothermal soak overlooking the North Iceland landscape. Browse geothermal and hot-spring experiences around Mývatn.
When architecture becomes a reason to travel
The most interesting lesson from Iceland Slow Sauna may ultimately be larger than the building itself. Small-scale architecture can give travellers a different way to encounter a destination — particularly somewhere such as Mývatn, where geology, climate and landscape are already central to the experience. Instead of rushing between Iceland’s headline attractions, the competition proposes something slower: staying in one landscape long enough to notice changing light, temperature, weather and materiality. That philosophy makes Mývatn particularly suited to a two- or three-day stay. Its major sights are relatively close together, while the wider Diamond Circle opens the door to longer journeys towards Húsavík, Ásbyrgi, Dettifoss and Goðafoss. The Iceland Slow Sauna therefore represents more than an architectural experiment. It points towards a form of travel in which architecture, wellness and landscape reinforce one another — and where slowing down may be the best way to experience North Iceland.
Suggested Online Sources
Buildner — Iceland Slow Sauna competition results
Visit Mývatn — Lake Mývatn travel and itinerary information
Visit North Iceland — Diamond Circle and North Iceland destinations
