Team

Project Supervisor: Andreea Marcu

Student: Matthias Galea Souchet

BastuBaħar is a public sauna experience carved into the limestone coast of Sliema, Malta — a reimagining of the long-lost Chalet, once a beloved landmark of leisure and gathering. This project introduces an unfamiliar, experimental ritual to the Maltese Islands: a guided sauna and bathing experience open to all.

A synthesis of the Swedish word for sauna and the Maltese word for sea, the project is inspired by my time studying in Sweden, where sauna culture is an integral part of everyday life used to reset the mind, body and soul. In contrast, such a culture is virtually absent in Southern Europe, even though sauna bathing is not only suited to colder climates.

Set on the former site of the Chalet, a short-lived but iconic 20th-century dance hall and bathing platform, BastuBaħar seeks to revive its former spirit of leisure, gathering and connection to the sea through a contemporary lens. Rather than replicating another privatised seaside bar or restaurant on such a prominent site, the project proposes a public space centred around wellbeing, bathing and social interaction.

The architecture is deeply rooted within its coastal setting, embedded beneath the existing promenade and emerging from the limestone shore. Its monolithic character draws from Malta’s tradition of shaping the malleable limestone landscape for shelter, access and occupation, while its stepped relationship with the water takes inspiration from the geometric forms of local salt pans.

Fusing echoes of Roman bath traditions with northern influences, the experience is designed as a guided, step-by-step ritual. Following an arrival and preparation phase, users progress through a series of spaces — the tepidarium, laconicum, sudatorium and infra-red sauna — each offering distinct temperatures, atmospheres and social settings. The experience choreographs a gradient through each sauna from acclimatisation and introspection towards relaxation, social interaction and reconnection. Carefully framed openings alternate between views of the horizon, the rocky shoreline and the sky, curating atmospheres and reconnecting users with the immediate landscape and larger cycles of the natural world. With openings and architectural elements intentionally aligned with the changing position of the sunrise at the solstices and equinoxes, the building highlights seasonal cycles and the passing of time.

The ritual ultimately dissolves into the public beach platform, as the architecture gives way to landscape. Stepped sunbathing decks, seawater pools, diving platforms, a yoga deck and a modest bar extend the experience into the open air and create spaces that can be appropriated collectively. The character of this public realm changes throughout the day, from sunrise yoga to relaxed swimming to sunbathing by day, ending with drinks and music as the sun sets.

BastuBaħar therefore seeks to revive the spirit of the Chalet through a new ritual of gathering, wellbeing and connection to the sea. By reinterpreting this relationship through a contemporary lens, the project proposes a new chapter for a site deeply embedded in Malta’s collective memory — offering a new kind of cultural and social landmark for Malta’s shoreline, 100 years after the Chalet first graced the islands.