What do Norway’s breathtaking fjords and our very own Saratoga Lake have in common? Soon, it will be the rejuvenating presence of floating saunas.
Yes, you read that right. Coming this fall to the Spa City is Kos, a public sauna built on a boat that will be docked at the waterfront of Lago by Druthers. (Kos, a hard-to-define Norwegian term that encompasses happiness, warmth, small joys, and luxury as simplicity, is pronounced “koos.”) With Kos, creator Kate Butchart and co-creators Tom Vargehese and Bjornar Haveland will bring a traditional Scandinavian wellness practice that pairs sauna-bathing and cold-plunging to a city long revered as a health destination.
Butchart’s own sauna journey began in 2018, when she moved to Norway for work. The New Jersey native recalls arriving in the unfamiliar country, knowing no one. “The sauna became my survival mechanism,” she says. “It gets you out of the house in winter, meeting people, and it just feels so good.” Flash forward seven years, and this sauna ritual has become a cornerstone of Butchart’s life. “My friends and I meet at the sauna at 7 o’clock in the morning before we go to work,” she says. “It’s such a great way to start the day.”
When Butchart, now a dual US/Norwegian citizen, began planning a move back to the States, she knew she had to take this tradition with her. All that was left was to pick a home for floating sauna.
“We chose Saratoga not just for the beautiful lake, but also the heritage and the history of the springs,” she says. “It’s such a rich, amazing place.”
Of course, here in the Spa City, we’re no strangers to the pleasures of sauna bathing; a restorative spa day isn’t complete without a little heat therapy. However, what Butchart and her team are bringing to the area is altogether separate from Saratoga’s—and much of the country’s—existing spa scene. What makes Kos a Norwegian sauna, aside from the fact that it floats, is its emphasis on nature and community-building.
To bring her vision to life, Butchart teamed up with award-winning architect Haveland, who designed, built, and runs the floating sauna Laugaren in Bergen, Norway. The design of Kos, which will have a hot room, swimming platform, multipurpose entry room, and roof deck, is inspired by that of a stabbur, a traditional Norwegian structure used to store food.
“It’s not fancy,” Butchart says of her Norwegian sauna practice. “It’s a refreshing, exhilarating experience in nature. And everybody’s the same in there. We’re all undergoing this very intense experience between the extreme heat and the cold. The endorphins that you feel lead you to talk about things that you never would talk about otherwise.”
More than a detox, Kos will give Saratogians an opportunity to carve out space and time to commune with the elements—and one another. Designed to be accessible on a regular, year-round basis, the spa will offer 75-minute social sessions, private rentals, and annual/monthly memberships.
“I feel really honored that I can come home and bring this with me,” Butchart says. “The world needs this.”