Iceland Slow Sauna

Iceland Slow Sauna focuses on slow architecture, encouraging intimate, sensory-driven sauna designs that connect body, nature, and time.

illustrarch Team15 January 20262 Mins read6

Submission: Monday, May 11, 2026

Registration: Wednesday, Jan 28, 2026

Prize: €5,000

Type: Open

Fee: €120

The sauna has always been more than a room of heat. It is a place of stillness, where the body slows, the breath deepens, and the mind begins to loosen. Architecture has the power to enrich this ritual — to frame silence, to choreograph the movement between warmth and air, to turn a simple act of sweating into a profound experience of presence. But what else belongs in this rhythm? How might architecture extend the ritual of renewal beyond the sauna itself?

In Iceland, the answer is often found in light and growth. At Lake Mývatn — a volcanic landscape of steam vents, moss, and silence — the forces of fire and fragility are always entwined. Here, a greenhouse is not just a space for cultivation, but a chamber of recovery, illumination, and life. To step from heat into green, from stone into glass, is to prolong the ritual: to rest, to breathe, to encounter warmth in another form. It is this dialogue — between fire and light, stone and plant — that gives the Iceland Slow Sauna its unique brief.

The assignment calls for a modest retreat that unites a sauna and a greenhouse into a single structure, a small architecture that is at once intimate and expansive. The challenge is not to build larger, but to build with sensitivity — to explore how transitions between hot and cool, enclosed and open, dark and bright can become a journey of their own. This competition asks architects to think not in terms of objects, but of experiences, rituals, and atmospheres.

This vision comes from Óli and Bianca, the couple behind Slow Travel Mývatn. Their philosophy is rooted in slowness, authenticity, and care for the land. With this competition, they seek proposals that mirror their way of life — spaces that are thoughtful, tactile, and attuned to both human presence and the Icelandic landscape. The Iceland Slow Sauna is not simply about constructing a building, but about designing a ritual of renewal, a rhythm between heat, light, and silence.

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize – 5,000 €
2nd Prize – 2,500 €
3rd Prize – 1,000 €

+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award – 1,000 €
Buildner Sustainability Award – 500 €

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Advance Registration: NOVEMBER 27 – JANUARY 28, 2026
Last Minute Registration: JANUARY 29 – APRIL 8, 2026

Final registration deadline: APRIL 8, 2026
Closing date for submission: MAY 11, 2026 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: JULY 7, 2026

Sources:Competition Source