Contemplating and gathering
Temazcal
Indigenous communityretreat centerspabackyard of a houseintercultural health center
A steam bath of Mesoamerican origin. It is a low chamber of adobe, stone or timber where water is poured over hot volcanic stones. It has relatives in the Finnish sauna, the hammam of the Islamic world and the Lakota sweat lodge.
What it solves
It offers an enclosure of heat and steam for cleansing the body, resting and sharing a rite or a conversation. In Indigenous communities of Mexico and Central America it is still a place of ceremony and care, also used by traditional midwives.
Today
Use well-dried volcanic stones, a door that opens outward without a latch, ventilation to renew the air and a cool place with water and shade to come out and rest. Limit the number of people and have the session guided by someone trained in the tradition.
Common mistake
Promising unproven cures or packing it with people without controlling heat or air, because excess temperature, smoke and dehydration can be serious.
Tomorrow
It can be built with local adobe, stone and timber, with the fire outside and pruning wood instead of felled trees. Designed together with the communities that keep the tradition, it can be a meeting place that respects its origin.
Fact River stones or stones with air bubbles can crack or burst with heat, which is why dry volcanic stones are preferred.
Where it comes from
- 1Classic Maya Palenque, Mexico, Classic period
In Group B at Palenque there is evidence of stones heated and sprinkled with water to make steam. A panel in the Temple of the Cross calls these baths house of clouds. - 2Mexica Temazcaltitlan, Mexico City, 14th century
In 2020 the remains of an adobe and tezontle temazcal with stucco, about 5 by 3 meters, were made public in the old district of Temazcaltitlan. - 3Finnish sauna Finland, living tradition
The oldest form is the smoke sauna, heated with wood for six to eight hours. Finland’s sauna culture was added to UNESCO’s intangible heritage list in 2020. - 4Hammam Islamic world, since the Umayyad period
Heir to the Greek and Roman baths, it leads from the cold room to the warm and the hot. Remains of these baths date from the 7th and 8th centuries.
Masters
- Aino and Alvar Aalto Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland, 1939
Next to the house they designed a small timber sauna resting on a low stone wall, near the pool and the forest. It teaches how to treat the heat bath as a pavilion of its own, linked to water and landscape.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Contemplating and gathering
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.