Finnish born and bred. Building here for 15 years.
I've lived in New Zealand for a decade and a half, and I'm still strongly attached to my Nordic roots. This is what I brought with me.
That's me, more than fifty-five years ago.
Sauna is the only Finnish word to make it into everyday English — and it's almost always misunderstood. People here hear "sauna" and think luxury. In Finland it's an everyday necessity.
For almost every Finn, the sauna is the most important room in the home and the one most closely tied to their wellbeing. It's where we socialise and do business, and traditionally where families prepared for births, deaths and marriages. I grew up with it as a regular, indispensable part of life — not a treat, not a spa day. Just the room you use. That gap between how the sauna is understood here and what it really is, is the reason this business exists.
A culture we grew up in — not one we studied.
* At least 2 million saunas according to official registers. The Finnish Sauna Society estimates the real number may be as high as 3.2 million.
The ritual, as it's actually done.
Water on the stones — löyly
Water thrown over hot stones, often with leaves or herbs, sends up a wave of fragrant vapour and heat. Every sauna has its own character, its own distinctive löyly.
A beating with the vasta
Gentle or brisk, with a vasta or vihta — a tied bundle of fresh birch twigs. It stimulates circulation and fills the room with the scent of birch.
And then — the cold
A dip in a lake, a roll in the snow or a cold shower. The contrast is the point: it closes the pores, sharpens the senses and makes the next round of heat feel even better.
Thousands of years, same idea.
The tools have changed. The principle — heated stones, steam and a quiet room — hasn't.
A pit in the ground
The first saunas were dug into a slope, with a pile of stones heated by fire and the pit covered with skins or turf. The whole principle was already in place.
The smoke sauna
Log cabins with a stone stove and no chimney. The room is heated for hours, the smoke let out, and the soft heat stored in the stones and walls is unlike anything else. Many Finns still swear by it.
The chimney sauna
A stove with a flue meant the sauna could be heated faster and used the same evening. It became the standard across Finland.
The electric heater
Electric heaters brought the sauna into apartments, hotels and homes everywhere — including, today, yours.
Three words worth knowing.
The only Finnish word in everyday English, and the one most often misunderstood. Here it suggests luxury. In Finland it's an everyday necessity, and the most important room in the house.
The wave of heat and fragrant vapour that rises when water is thrown on the hot stones. Every sauna has its own distinctive löyly.
A tied bundle of fresh birch twigs used for a gentle or brisk beating in the heat. Which word you use depends on where in Finland you grew up.
A builder who grew up in them.
Petri Knuuttila is a Scandinavian-trained, qualified builder who has been designing and building saunas and steam rooms in New Zealand for fifteen years.
- Scandinavian trained & qualifiedA builder by trade, not a reseller who learned saunas from a catalogue.
- Built for the room, not the catalogueCustom design and installation around your goals, requirements, style and space.
- A lifetime of löylyMore than fifty-five years of knowing what a sauna should feel like when it's right.
- Your vision, our expertiseThe two together are what make a sauna you're delighted with.
