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Strathcona Sauna Collective : wetland stewardship and communal reverence: a site of spiritual and environmental healing

Hein, Emily

In today’s tumultuous global geopolitics and peak colonial capitalism, amongst the mental health pandemic, COVID-19 and global environmental degradation, one might see bathing as a luxury of escapism. However, a model of collective ownership that nurtures nodes of civic space for communal reverence could radically shift this politic of bodily pleasure. Saunas in Vancouver are either folded into recreational community centres, financially accessible, yet disconnected from the landscape or nestled in some sanctuary with a higher price point and much navel-gazing. This project uses the Holistic Model for a Balanced Life, which includes body, mind, spirit, environment and community, as a framework for designing a sauna that is well integrated into the wetland habitat area of Strathcona Park. Expanding on the community’s culture of land stewardship and resilience, this project highlights the importance of stewardship as acts of care. Whether in maintaining a building, tending to a fire, or planting wetland-appropriate indigenous food species these labours are part of stewardship and the pleasure of this project. Along with the collectively owned sauna and cold plunge pool, this project proposes expanding the wetland habitat area with better integration into the rest of the park including amenities such as public toilets and showers. Through a more thoughtful integration with the community and the natural environment, along with material design considerations, this saunas is a civic node of holistic healing.

Text

University of British Columbia. ARCH 594

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0444164

Applied Science, Faculty of; Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/