A sauna shaped like a giant egg is helping to attract visitors to the Arctic Circle. Artist duo Bigert & Bergström recently unveiled their Solar Egg, a golden-goose-worthy, egg-shaped sauna decorated with 69 gold-plated stainless-steel panels that reflect its surroundings. The sauna looms over the landscape like the spaceship in Arrival, if it were created by chickens.
The 16-foot sauna can seat up to eight people who are kept warm by a wood-burning stove that transforms the giant egg into an incubator for humans (like the karmic reversal of a chick incubator). The surprisingly portable egg, which can be broken down into a mere 69 pieces (this is the land of Ikea, after all), is scheduled to move around the Kiruna region this summer for maximum sauna selfie opportunities.
The giant golden egg came about as part of an urban redevelopment project by developer Riksbyggen, which wanted to lure people to Kiruna with the promise of great Instagram pics (apparently), before the entire town is moved to save it from collapsing into a now-abandoned mine. The idea appears to be working, as travel groups are now offering free visits to the Solar Egg for visitors hoping to take advantage of Sweden’s midnight sun and see the town before it moves two miles east.
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