The "avanto" ritual is paired with a blast of dry heat in the sauna Whether they’re sweating in the sauna or plunging into an ice-cold lake, it seems that the Finns love extremes. And with winter just ...

A sculptural white staircase lit by a skylight connects an open-plan living space to a mezzanine floor inside this house in Finland by Avanto Architects (+ slideshow). Avanto designed the villa in the ...

Heta-Jemina Pudas is the owner of the only public bathhouse in Lapland where people ice-plunge straight in the Baltic Sea, not in a lake or a pool. Ms Pudas reveals all the secrets for a pleasant, ...

It was the bargain he'd made with the winter swimmers he photographed for his surreal series Avanto: After shooting, he'd join them. So he stepped in. "My heart stopped," Lahdesmaki says. "I felt like ...

On the occasion of the centenary of Finland's Independence (Suomi 100), Rome’s Casa dell’Architettura is to host the “Architecture in Finland. From Alvar Aalto to new generations. Talk with Avanto ...

A copper-clad chapel and a faceted wooden sauna are among the four buildings competing for Finland's most important architecture prize (+ slideshow). The Finnish Association of Architects has ...