About
Overview
Background
The Attercop Sauna was developed through an intensive design process during the autumn of 2025. The point of departure was a large mobile sauna structureRintala Eggertsson Architects designed in 2014, where the idea was to take it to cultural festivals around the Arctic region. The Salt Project, as it was called, has since 2018 found its final location in Oslo and became the starting point of the sauna wave that has swept over Norway.
The U.S. version of SALT
TheTherme Group has monitored the development of sauna culture around Europe since it started spreading across the continent over the last 8–10 years. They understood immediately the possibilities of using a large mobile sauna structure to promote sauna culture in the U.S. and commissioned Rintala Eggertsson Architects as designers and constructors.
With a team of American carpenters and architects they started the job on February 20th and kept it going through the freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall that characterized February weather on the East Coast. The sauna had gone through an intensive detail-design process prior to arrival in New York City, where the aim was to maximize the thermal flow and social aspects of the sauna experience.
The location in Domino Park and the orientation toward Manhattan were also major factors in the design. Having a panoramic view of the East River and the iconic skyline of the East Side is not an everyday experience for most people and was a good reason to open the full façade in that direction. The outcome was a space with four rows of stepped seating facing each other to emphasize the social nature of the sauna ritual, a side view toward the entrance and the sauna village square, and the main view towards Manhattan.
To avoid many interfering structural elements and columns inside the large sauna space, the main bearing was placed on the outside of the space with two ridge beams crossing from one side to the other. Two wood materials were used in the building: Douglas spruce in the main structure and alder for the floor, walls, ceiling, and sauna benches to provide comfort and soft surfaces for users.
Attercop
Seeing the external bearing structure stand out as it did in the final design, its resemblance to a spider was evident. Dagur Eggertsson and Sami Rintala, the lead designers of the structure, quickly chose an old English word for spider: attercop — or eiturkúpa in Old Norse, meaning "poison skull."
Info
Design Team
Sami Rintala & Dagur Eggertsson
Project Team
Robert Hammond, Jeffrey Wainhouse, Andy Engler
Client
Thermegroup US
Carpentry
Sami Rintala, Justin Tucker, Jesse Greenhill, Isaac Tucker, Phinn Tucker, Dallas Myers, Dagur Eggertsson, Erin Pellegrino, Remi Groenendijk, Antti Vappula, Sebastian Wehner, JohanJuha Rintala, Arnar Grétarsson, Daníel Grétarsson , Arnbjörn Guðjonsson, Gísli Hrafn Magnússon, Örn Ingi Gunnarsson
Material Providers
Juup Finland – Sauna oven
Prince Lumber – Structural timber
EZ saunas – Interior wood
Convey Lighting - Lighting
Engineer
Three Point Structural / Daniel Louis & Solveig Sandness
Sami Rintala & Dagur Eggertsson
Project Team
Robert Hammond, Jeffrey Wainhouse, Andy Engler
Client
Thermegroup US
Carpentry
Sami Rintala, Justin Tucker, Jesse Greenhill, Isaac Tucker, Phinn Tucker, Dallas Myers, Dagur Eggertsson, Erin Pellegrino, Remi Groenendijk, Antti Vappula, Sebastian Wehner, JohanJuha Rintala, Arnar Grétarsson, Daníel Grétarsson , Arnbjörn Guðjonsson, Gísli Hrafn Magnússon, Örn Ingi Gunnarsson
Material Providers
Juup Finland – Sauna oven
Prince Lumber – Structural timber
EZ saunas – Interior wood
Convey Lighting - Lighting
Engineer
Three Point Structural / Daniel Louis & Solveig Sandness
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