Logi Sauna

Logi Sauna is located in the last remaining piece of vacant land in the city center, cozily enclosed by the trees and bushes on the Baltic sea. The sauna building is a simple wooden structure, a place to slow down and experience ascetic, down to earth sauna bathing. After warming up in the sauna, one can cool off in the waves. The process of designing and building the sauna, as well as its day-to-day management, have been collective, and the authors of the project are also sauna caretakers who heat the sauna 3-4 times a week during regular opening hours with the help of volunteers.

Although sauna bathing is deeply rooted in Estonian culture, Tallinn lacked a space that offered both access to the seafront and a welcoming environment for people of all ages and backgrounds. Finding the current location took several failed attempts and navigating layers of bureaucracy. It also required ongoing collaboration with the city government and a continuous process of redesign—focusing on available resources rather than on what was missing. Co-running a public sauna has been a great opportunity to rethink the creation of safe spaces for women and gender nonconforming bodies in the public bathing context – Saturdays are for women only and every third week the local queer community holds their own sauna day. Moving away from the terms such as client and user, Logi sauna is a collective effort to slow down time — an ongoing process to understand how to create and share space together and look after communities as well as the environment.

Logi Sauna is a good example of bottom-up architecture with low cost materials but maximum impact, whose real charm is revealed in use. With no running water and electricity, it’s a space offering as little as possible and as much as necessary. The landscape has been intervened minimally, leaving a birch tree growing through the roof of the building. The wooden house has been built in a way that the insulated sauna and caretaker’s section can be relocated. The surrounding structure provides shelter from strong winds and potential vandalism, it' s a multifunctional space — for changing clothes, storing firewood or organizing events. As a non-profit, our affordable ticket sales cover operating costs and support ongoing improvements, enabling us to keep making time and space for collective sauna bathing. Logi sauna is an alternative to digital tide, we aim to create a public space that reconnects people with urban nature and highlights the need for wilderness within the city.