Turn Up the Heat: How Sauna Culture Is Shaping Luxury Living
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Forget a wine cellar or car showroom; saunas are the ultimate status-defining amenity in today’s luxury home.
While neither new nor novel—the ancient Finnish tradition dates back millennia—in recent years, saunas have skyrocketed into mainstream wellness culture, propelled by mounting scientific evidence linking traditional sauna use to muscle recovery and cardiovascular benefits and reduced inflammation.
The current sauna revival extends beyond health benefits alone. It’s reshaping how people socialise, relax and live together. In major cities such as London and New York, urban bathhouses are emerging as social gathering spaces among screen-fatigued, health-conscious young professionals seeking community. Meanwhile, biohacking trends and the interest in preventative health and longevity are an increasing influence on at-home amenities, like the sauna, among homebuyers across generations.
Luxury buyers are commissioning custom saunas for their homes as essential design features, with some installations even commanding six-figure budgets. Ilene Chase, a Chicago-based interior designer, says her high-net-worth clients are prioritising wellness suites in both their primary and holiday properties.
“Our homes dictate the lives we lead,” Chase says. “When we bridge extraordinary design with high-level wellness, we’re sculpting a spiritual sanctuary. There is something deeply personal about recovery in the privacy of your own home. You have the luxury of being completely unobserved. This is where the real work happens.”
If traditional Finnish saunas are the design blueprint, today’s high-end versions are the architectural evolution. Standard saunas generally follow a Finnish design template, incorporating wood cladding (usually pine or spruce), a central stone stove, tiered benches and airtight insulation. Where design-focused commissions diverge is in materials and intention.
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Luxury installations may swap or integrate softwoods for cedar or thermally modified hardwoods; incorporate floor-to-ceiling glass walls, ergonomic seating and integrated artwork; or include tech-driven features, such as red light panels, chromotherapy lighting, aromatherapy, or savvy speaker systems.
Finland is the sauna capital of the world, where the habit is inscribed into the list of UNESCO Intangible Culture Heritage. Jasper Pääkkönen, founder of Helsinki’s renowned Löyly eco-sauna and AITO, which crafts authentic Finnish saunas, emphasizes outdoor positioning whenever possible. “Saunas are used far more when placed outdoors in a garden or by a pool,” Pääkkönen says.
“It’s a completely different experience when you’re overlooking nature—the calming and relaxing effect is much stronger. Having said that, if your home doesn’t have the outdoor space for a sauna, a bathroom sauna is better than no sauna at all.”
For Pääkkönen, and most Finns, saunas are designed above all for connection. “The most beautiful moments in a sauna are social, shared either with my wife and children or with good friends,” he says. “There is something magical about sweating it out in a hot room with others. It creates very honest, sincere and authentic human connections.”