Cabanon

Le Corbusier’s wooden hut. Memories of beach cabins. Age-old traditions of the Finnish sauna. In creating its first outdoor collection, Effe by Effegibi merged and reinterpreted these three concepts in a contemporary light to produce Cabanon, designed by Rodolfo Dordoni with Michele Angelini. Reclaiming ancient local customs is blended with experimenting with cutting-edge technologies in this collection designed to fit different living contexts, from gardens and open green spaces to more urban niches with terraces and loggias. Such diversity inevitably requires various sizes to perfectly combine the home climate with the curative well-being experience of the sauna in a product that merges easily into the surrounding environment: Garden is the largest version (225x225 cm), Terrace the smallest (150x150 cm). At the entrance to the actual box, it is possible to add an outdoor deck space, although the size varies in relation to the unit in each case. This deck, made of Wood Plastic Composite (WPC), is simply an extension that can be shaded using outdoor curtains made of technical fabric. On a more conceptual level, this addition is part of the idea of “encasing” a classic wooden sauna in an aluminum frame, and then “dressing” the structure externally with painted aluminum corrugations in three different colors (moss, brick and concrete in a matte finish).
This wall is also the surface for the outdoor shower.

Despite the seeming complexity of conformation, the installation process is incredibly simple because Cabanon is a “layered”, modular product that is transported to the assembly site in four kits – structure, indoor sauna, outer covering and electrical kit.

Garden and Terrace epitomize successfully combining the need for an outdoor structure, separated from enclosed spaces just as in ancient Finnish traditions, with a comfortable, private space. This effect is then accentuated by the warm LED lighting, placed between the bench and the walls, and the soft backlighting of the mirror, with the thermal glazing creating a tight seal that adds the final touch. Insulating layers are also placed between the outer structure and the wooden sauna box and in the wall-frames of the inner sauna.

The sauna includes a stove with 3.0 kW or 6.0 kW output depending on the size, with the casing in the same color as the external corrugated cladding.

At the heart of this collection lies the intention to resurrect old feelings and old memories. “My thoughts immediately went to beach cabins”, says Rodolfo Dordoni, “where warmth and nudity created that feeling of abandonment we might call wellness today. Cabanon was designed to evoke both the form and the emotions of that”.