This perfectly-compact sauna blends the best of Scandinavian and Japanese expertise

Enjoying the fragrance of a hinoki bathtub is one of the great pleasures of Japanese bathing culture. Now imagine being completely enclosed in a hinoki sauna with the steam drawing out those same fragrant oils from the wood. That is the promise of the Kupu Sauna from Maruni, one of Japan’s most distinguished furniture makers.

Designed by self-proclaimed sauna addict Wataru Kumano, who has ample experience working with hinoki, or Japanese cypress, from his MAS furniture series for Karimoku, the sauna is a beautiful blend of Scandinavian aesthetics (think: exposed, bare wood floor, walls and ceiling) and Japanese craftsmanship (the joinery of the benches, door and, of course, the sauna itself).

Kumano intentionally designed the sauna as a half-dome. 'Heat rises, and as the higher bench sits at the top of the tallest wall, we create the possibility to enjoy that heat to its max as opposed to a barrel sauna where the heat sits in the middle where no one is sitting,' he explains.

The half-dome design also makes the sauna significantly easier to place next to an existing wall, or even gives the option of joining two halves together to form a larger sauna. The curved wall blends seamlessly into the ceiling and is held together by four stainless-steel bands.

'In principle, the sauna could be extended to up to four metres, which is the maximum length of the Yoshino Hinoki we have used,' says Kumano, but the standard version’s modest footprint of roughly four sq. metres also means that it should be relatively easy to find a spot to add a proper sweat room to your daily spa routine.

Kumano, who's lived many years in Finland, was a natural choice for the design, but the process was very collaborative. 'I spent much time sweating in saunas with both Hiroshi Yamanaka-san [CEO of Maruni] and Haruya Agematsu-san [from One Sauna, who was a consultant on the project)] discussing the project,' he says.

Then, of course, there's Maruni, a company that's been making furniture for more than 100 years. With its fine finish and precise detailing, the Kupu Sauna is a home upgrade that's worth breaking a sweat for.