One box, three programmes
Sauna Smådalarö occupies a rocky shoreline in the Stockholm archipelago. Metropolis Arkitekter combined sauna, workshop and boat/canoe storage in a compact 24 m² volume — not three sheds, but one clear diagram under a generous roof borrowed from traditional boathouse silhouettes.
The assignment from the client was explicit. Lead architect Caspar von Vegesack’s team answered with precision of programme rather than added floor area. Heat, work, and gear share one negotiation with rock and wind.
“We took inspiration from a traditional boathouse with its large roof and placed a simple box with all the functions underneath.”
— Metropolis Arkitekter, ArchDaily project text
The roof does the heavy lifting
The cantilevered roof sheds weather and creates a covered outdoor edge for changing and gear. Archipelago winters and wind load drive structure as much as plan. Continuous screw joints in the exposed pine resist wind; untreated pine weathers grey into the archipelago palette — a maintenance strategy as much as an aesthetic.
The sauna is not hidden inside a larger house. It is allowed to be a precise outbuilding: joinery at building scale, appropriate to a 24 m² brief.
Pine that weathers
Exposed pine structure, untreated cladding, screw joints for wind. Construction reads as honest craft under a boathouse silhouette without pastiche. For archipelago and lake sites, Smådalarö shows how a hospitality annex can be smaller and clearer than a guest cottage — sauna culture becomes architecture when storage and work are designed with the same care as the hot room.
Sources
Research drawn from published project documentation. Photography credits are for attribution only — images on this page are placeholders until rights are cleared.
