Navia's Origin - Saunas around Scandinavia

Our Inspiration

Navia's origin can't be pinned down to a single moment in time, or even from a single place. It slowly grew within Lucia and myself, beginning as a bud from our love of all things health and wellness, starting to bloom as we travelled through Denmark and fell in love with the Scandinavian values and the pervasive feeling of hygge, before blossoming as we were inspired by each and every sauna we visited in Norway, Sweden, and of course Finland, the birth place of the Sauna.

Scandinavian sauna culture is an entirely different beast than what we currently have in Australia, and I think a Finnish man we spoke to in Helsinki said it best "Sauna isn't a place for chatting about the weather, its a place to come together".

Communal Sauna - Quintessentially Scandinavian

Sauna in Australia is a typically solitary affair, a space for you and at most one friend to focus on your physical wellbeing, but in my opinion, they do it better up north. In Scandinavia, particularly Finland, it's a ritual, a routine, and most importantly, a space to come together. I could dive into the millennia of rich history of the sauna, from pits in the ground to a space to give birth and care for the ill , but this might be best saved for another blog post. The most important piece for Navia's story, is the sauna's roots in community. As an inherently social species, spaces to come together and bond over shared experience, such as a boiling sauna session or a freezing cold plunge is integral not only to our physical health, but our mental and social health too. This complete wellness experience is essential to the Navia ethos.

Lucia's bold cold plunge entry into the 5ºC sea.

During our travels, the community bathing experience was best represented by the Winter Bathing at Nordnes Sjøbad, a salt water pool located in Bergen, Norway. No matter where we were, from the sauna, to the pools, to the chilling cold plunges, the sense of community and belonging was overflowing from every corner of the space. The sensation of emerging from the invigorating 5ºC ocean water to the praise of the locals for a spectacular dive (once you get past the language barrier) is simply euphoric. While this might sound like an introvert's nightmare, it's important to not get it twisted; you could easily come to a space like this on your own and talk to no one, and still leave feeling like a part of the community. We believe wellness is better when it's shared

Our Space - Finnish Sauna Design Inspiration

The cold plunge bucket at Löyly

A sauna isn't just about the people, and no one knows that more than Löyly - a sauna and restaurant in Helsinki, Finland that has been named one of the 100 greatest places in the world. The sleek combination of Scandi design with dark finishes was unlike anything we had seen before. The feeling of sitting in the warm embrace of a black timber sauna was uniquely comforting & entirely relaxing. With the amazing extrinsic aesthetic of Löyly and the powerful intrinsic feelings it evoked we knew we had to bring a piece of this back home to Australia. We have tried to capture this at Navia Byron Bay through our very own black timber sauna, a first of it's kind in Australia (to the best of our knowledge).

Feel the heat of the sauna wrap around you.

The Navia Experience

At Navia, our space has been built with both aesthetic and purpose in mind to bring the Scandinavian bathhouse culture to you. From the warm caress of our traditional Finnish sauna, to invigorating chill of the cold plunges, we have sought to create a space that fosters your physical, mental and social wellbeing. With Scandinavian values as our base, we're seeking to create our own community of wellness lovers. Come down to Navia and:

Sauna Like the Happiest People on Earth

- Pat, Navia Co-Founder