Text description provided by the architects. Guided by the philosophy "From Waste to Promise," WasteLand transforms a heavily contaminated former industrial site into a public park where regenerative urban development, contemporary art and climate science meet. Its architectural anchor, Crystal Sauna by Bigert & Bergström, was conceived for the city of Skellefteå as both a public artwork and a functioning social space: a place where questions of climate, technology, and societal transformation can be experienced physically.
The exterior draws inspiration from the geometry of lithium crystals and natural hexagonal rock formations. Lithium became a central reference because of its symbolic role in the green transition, while also pointing to the environmental consequences of mineral extraction. The sauna itself adds another layer: in an era of global warming, visitors voluntarily enter extreme heat together, turning temperature from an abstract climatic measurement into a bodily experience.
Firstly, the Scharin industrial area had been severely polluted by more than a century of industrial activity. Before the park could be developed, the municipality carried out a complex 17-year remediation process to remove and contain contaminated soil.
The Crystal Sauna presented a different kind of design challenge. Its asymmetric form leans backward by four degrees and contains virtually no conventional right-angled geometry. Approximately 280 prisms meet at continually changing angles, demanding highly precise digital modeling and bespoke fabrication. Resolving this complex shell makes Crystal Sauna the most technically demanding project Bigert & Bergström have undertaken.
The structure was developed digitally before its components were fabricated using CNC and laser-cutting technologies. More than 140 metal sheets — 58 top sections and 86 side sections — were assembled with over 3,500 nuts and bolts. The faceted exterior consists of titanium-coated stainless mirror steel. Its characteristic pink surface is created through a vacuum process in which titanium is evaporated and deposited onto the steel under electrical voltage.
Inside, the technological exterior gives way to a warm "wooden cave," digitally shaped and CNC-cut from heat-resistant SpaPlex veneer on a certified spruce structure. Northern Swedish heartwood pine, selected using X-ray scanning for its naturally high resin content, is used for the floor and exterior deck, allowing it to resist moisture and decay without chemical treatment. Alder is used for the benches.
At the center stands a custom 700-kilogram battery-powered sauna heater, shaped like a prehistoric stone tool and filled with olivine and graystone.
The WasteLand park is organized around movement, reflection and encounter. A network of paths leads visitors through a recovering riverside landscape, including Rundgång, a 400-meter circular walk designed for meditative "walk-and-talk" conversations, and temporary exhibitions, like Broken Greenhouse by Bigert & Bergström, five sculptural greenhouses representing different future climate scenarios.
This experiential sequence culminates at the riverfront, where Crystal Sauna acts as a pink mirrored landmark. Accommodating 12–15 people, the compact interior turns the sauna into a literal and metaphorical incubator for conversation — connecting landscape, climate, technology, and some of humanity's earliest social experiences around fire.
CRYSTAL SAUNA
LOCATION Ursviken, Sweden
ARCHITECT Bigert & Bergström
PHOTOGRAPHY Pär Olofsson and Jonas Westling