Water hitting hot stones produces a hissing sound. Sweat trickles down sauna-goers’ backs. The wooden benches feel as hot as sunbaked sand. Through a window that takes up all of one wall, the Oulu River delta stretches out below. The northern Finnish summer is at its greenest.
Armi Ruusuvirta throws another ladleful of water onto the sauna stove and sighs.
“What could be a better wellbeing business than a traditional Finnish sauna combined with the opportunity to swim in cold water?” she asks.
But could this distinctly Finnish concept work beyond Finland?
According to Ruusuvirta, yes. Her vision for Olosauna goes beyond a single floating sauna in Oulu. She hopes to turn the concept into something that can be replicated in other countries.
So what exactly makes Olosauna different?
Building wellbeing into everyday life
Olosauna offers views of the surrounding riverscape. Guests have spotted otters and oystercatchers and seen fish leaping from the water.
Wellbeing has formed the common theme running through Armi Ruusuvirta’s career. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she worked as an agronomist and a designer, gaining experience in organic farming, care design and spatial planning.
Her different occupations share one idea: we can build wellbeing through our surroundings, the food we eat and the small choices we make every day.
“Behind it all was the idea that I wanted my working life to be connected to creating wellbeing,” Ruusuvirta says.
Displays of traditional Finnish household items decorate the walls.
Against this background, running a public sauna feels like a natural continuation of her career. She developed Olosauna’s concept with Ilmari Mäenpää, a designer at spatial design firm Olokoto.
Olosauna is about more than sauna and löyly – the steamy air created by pouring water onto the hot stones. The concept combines community and encounters with Finnish design. Olosauna holds events that bring people together. It is a place to slow down, recover and invest in your own wellbeing. The café serves electrolyte drinks. And all this is set on a floating raft located in beautiful natural surroundings.
The name comes from the Finnish word olo, which refers to a person’s condition or how they feel – as in hyvä olo, a good feeling.
A Finnish way to unwind
Olosauna is built on floating pontoons. The central courtyard provides a space for activities such as concerts and yoga classes.
Sauna has been part of Ruusuvirta’s life since childhood, as it has for many Finns. In Finland, instead of being an infrequent luxury, sauna is part of everyday life, something that belongs to everyone.
Ruusuvirta’s relationship with sauna deepened when she moved to a riverside home in the country. A traditional sauna on the shore and almost daily swims gave sauna an even greater role in her life.
The café serves drinks and snacks for guests to enjoy after the sauna.
“I feel that the combination of sauna and swimming in natural water has a grounding, relaxing effect,” she says. “It is a powerful recovery.”
After Ruusuvirta goes swimming, she returns to the shore feeling relaxed. She leaves the pressures of everyday life behind her in the water. The warm sauna completes the experience.
“It is such a familiar way for us Finns to relax,” she says. “It is one of the foundations of life.”
A modern village sauna
Olosauna’s walls were designed in dark tones. “Dark walls are gentle and embracing,” says Armi Ruusuvirta. “They also remind us of traditional saunas.”
Ruusuvirta opened Olosauna in Oulu, northern Finland’s largest city, in September 2025.
She describes it as a modern village sauna, a place to relax and meet other people.
“In the sauna, social and economic status falls away when you take off your clothes,” Ruusuvirta says. “We are all equal on the benches of the sauna.”
The next step is to see whether the concept works beyond Finland. Ruusuvirta is looking towards Stockholm, other European cities and even Japan.
Right now in Oulu, though, she has been sitting in the sauna long enough that it’s time to cool down.
The water of the Oulu River is a refreshing 16 degrees Celsius (61 degrees Fahrenheit). At first, it creates a prickly sensation on your hot skin. Then your body adjusts. Diving under the surface produces a feeling of being almost reborn.
Ruusuvirta climbs back onto the sauna raft, relaxed from her swim.
Finland’s sauna
In winter, swimmers can take a dip in an ice hole kept open by pumps that circulate water to keep the surface from refreezing.
- Sauna is part of everyday life in Finland. “Sauna culture in Finland” is on the Unesco list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- Finns go to the sauna with family, friends and sometimes – for instance at a spa, gym or public sauna – complete strangers.
- Nudity is normal in the sauna, although practices vary, and swimwear is required in some public saunas.
- Swimming in a lake or the sea can be part of the experience. During the winter, when a thick layer of ice forms on the surface, a large hole may be carved out to let people go for a dip.
- The sauna can be both a private retreat and a social space.
- Just as the sauna itself has Finnish roots, the word “sauna” is from Finnish. It has been adopted by numerous other languages to refer to the traditional Finnish steam bath.
- In addition to Olosauna, Oulu is home to several other public saunas, including Mallassauna, Black Sauna and Lainesauna.
Text and photos: Emilia Kangasluoma, August 2026
