Steam Yourself In This Giant Golden Egg

Up in the northern reaches of Sweden, just before Norway’s frozen coastline is a golden egg sitting in a snowy field at Luossabacken in Kiruna. Built by Bigert & Bergström, it’s more than just art. The egg is a sauna that just happens to be made out of stainless golden mirror sheeting.

The symbolism behind the egg runs deep. Deep enough to run underneath the town itself in fact. Sweden, and Kiruna in particular, rely on their iron ore mines, without the mines there’s no town. But the vein that they want to mine runs directly underneath the town. 13 years ago the residents of the town found out they were on unstable ground, and now the city council is looking at moving the town itself, transplanting it’s 18,200 residents further away from the mine which is their livelihood. It’s a massive undertaking and has raised a lot of debate.

It’s hoped that the Golden Egg can be used as a meeting place to discuss these challenges. Hopefully whatever is hatched from the egg will be to everyone’s liking.