Lake Mývatn, North Iceland; beside Þúfa – Private Homestay, according to ArchDaily.
About this story
ArchDaily reported that Buildner announced results for its Iceland Slow Sauna architecture competition, organized in partnership with Slow Travel Mývatn. The brief invited architects and designers to propose a compact retreat joining a sauna and greenhouse in a single experience, exploring transitions between heat and cool, darkness and daylight, enclosure and openness, and the relationship to Mývatn’s volcanic landscape. Buildner’s results page confirms the competition premise and winning entries. First prize and the Student Award went to Linear Ritual by Prusha Kadir, Joel Jansson, and Emil Sandström, whose proposal sequences greenhouse, shower, and sauna and uses a steep roof profile responding to local climate. Second prize went to Slow Sauna – Descent into Stillness by Jeremy T Anderson and Pascal Henle, which uses a descending sequence and translucent double-skin envelope. Third prize went to The fourfold ritual by Marty Ilievski and Clément Vignes, organized around a timber sauna core and surrounding greenhouse. Buildner also named Jordan Paul Scheuermann the Sustainability Award recipient. Jury affiliations and further design detail are available on the results page. These are competition concepts, and no construction or project delivery is confirmed. ArchDaily identifies the location as beside Þúfa – Private Homestay; that exact siting was not independently confirmed in the Buildner press kit reviewed.
Status and timeline
Competition results announced September 30, 2026. First prize and the Student Award went to Linear Ritual by Prusha Kadir, Joel Jansson, and Emil Sandström; second prize to Slow Sauna – Descent into Stillness by Jeremy T Anderson and Pascal Henle; third prize to The fourfold ritual by Marty Ilievski and Clément Vignes. Buildner identifies these as competition proposals; construction or realization is not confirmed.
Design highlights
The winning proposals treat bathing as a choreographed sequence rather than an isolated room. Linear Ritual combines a greenhouse, shower, and sauna in a linear progression and draws on Icelandic vernacular roof forms; the second-prize proposal uses descent, circular interiors, and a translucent double skin; The fourfold ritual frames the sauna as a timber thermal core within a greenhouse envelope, with earth, fire, water, and air shaping the experience.
