Sea Sauna: A Boatbuilder-Turned-Designer’s Floating Sauna in Maine
Photography courtesy of Ravenhill Studio
Boat builder turned sculptor turned designer Brendan Ravenhill grew up spending summers in Islesford Harbor, Maine, before founding Ravenhill Studio. One of his recent projects is close to home: the Sea Sauna, a sauna that floats in the harbor, created during the first wave of the Covid pandemic. Take a look at the building process and the finished result.
Brendan dreamed up a simple 8-by-6-foot design made mainly of cedar, inspired by a trip he had taken to Tokyo. Every part was gifted or salvaged.
“Shingling provided a meditative escape from the stress of the pandemic," the studio writes.
The buoyant finger float “was overgrown with beach rose on the waterfront” before Brendan salvaged it.
The sauna is open to the community, though a small boat is required to cross the distance to the sauna.
Shingles are nailed to hand-cut strips on the exterior of the sauna and left visible on the interior to keep the structure lightweight.
“The stove came from jeweler Sam Shaw, who welded it in 1979, the year Brendan was born.”
Photograph by Andrei Pogany,
courtesy of Ravenhill Studio.