Materials

Sauna gondola with kiri wood: innovative and sustainable

At Giardina 2024, Küng presented its popular sauna gondola with an interior made of kiri wood: the perfect combination of an upcycling product with a sustainable wood that has long been used in a variety of ways in Asia and is now also on a winning course in Europe.

Content

Sauna gondola made from Kiri-Tec wood
Kiri Holz
Collaboration with the designer duo Tarantik & Egge
Kiri-Tec wood

Sauna gondola made from Kiri-Tec wood

The interior of the gondola is made entirely of kiri wood. This is perfect for sauna construction and has a whole host of good properties: The tree, also known as Paulownia, grows very quickly, around ten times faster than oak. Its wood is lightweight, which reduces transportation and energy costs, among other things. At the same time, the material has good strength and high dimensional stability, it is durable and easy to work with. The wood for the sauna gondola comes from European production by Wegrow, a German company that has been a pioneer in the sustainable cultivation of kiri wood since it was founded in 2009 and maintains plantations at various locations in Germany and Spain.

The wood for the interior of the sauna gondola comes from Balteschwiler, a traditional Swiss company from Laufenburg and specialist in the field of precise, ultra-modern wood processing. The cooperation between Küng and Balteschwiler is just as perfect an interplay between two innovative Swiss partners as the combination of the upcycling sauna gondola with the pioneering Kiri wood.

Kiri Holz

Good strength
Due to its honeycomb cell structure, kiri is very strong and stable in relation to its weight.
Light
Density of approx. 270 kg/m3 - is one of the lightest woods on earth
High dimensional stability
Extremely low swelling and shrinkage behavior. Drying shrinkage from fiber saturation to equilibrium moisture content at 20/65: tangential: 2.46 %, radial: 0.69 %
Insulating
Landa value is only 0.09 W/mK. Kiri stores a lot of air in its vacuoles and therefore insulates more than twice as well as oak or beech
Weatherproof
Several months of tests to determine the dimensional stability under weathering by the Burckhardt Institute at the University of Göttingen provided the proof: no cracks, no cupping, no warping. Durability EN 113 2 (2016) / EN 350 (2020): 1v (outer heartwood NordMax21®)
Virtually knot-free
First-class care of the Kiri trees during growth enables a completely flawless range. The delicate grain and pleasantly smooth feel make it attractive for many applications
Easy to process
Kiri does not splinter and is easy to process by hand and machine, absorbs glazes and varnishes well and is very easy to glue

Collaboration with the designer duo Tarantik & Egge

The sauna gondola by designer duo Tarantik & Egger was developed together with Küng Wellness AG and is a fine example of upcycling.

Each sauna gondola offers space for four people and, with a footprint of just 2.5 m2, fits in any garden or on any terrace. The sauna gondolas are weatherproof and mobile.

The heart of the sauna gondola normally beats in alder. But now there is a version made of Kiri wood.

This is because Kiri has a honeycomb cell structure, which encloses many air vacuoles while maintaining high relative strength. Due to the resulting high air content of the wood, Kiri offers very good insulating properties. Due to its high insulating capacity, Kiri is particularly suitable for use in mobile extensions, interior fittings and sauna equipment.

Kiri-Tec wood

Kiri wood is a remarkable tree with many positive properties. It is known for its fast growth and is an excellent, sustainable solution for the use of wood in construction. Kiri is a modified Paulownia species that has been adapted by German researchers to grow optimally in Europe. The largest kiri plantations are currently located in Germany and Spain.

Good strength
Due to its honeycomb cell structure, kiri is very strong and stable in relation to its weight.

Light
Density of approx. 270 kg/m3 - one of the lightest woods in the world

High dimensional stability
Extremely low swelling and shrinkage behavior. Drying shrinkage from fiber saturation to equilibrium moisture content at 20/65: tangential: 2.46 %, radial: 0.69 %

Insulating
Landa value is only 0.09 W/mK. Kiri stores a lot of air in its vacuoles and therefore insulates more than twice as well as oak or beech

Weatherproof
Several months of tests to determine dimensional stability under weathering by the Burckhardt Institute at the University of Göttingen provided the proof: no cracks, no cupping, no warping. Durability EN 113 2 (2016) / EN 350 (2020): 1v (outer heartwood NordMax21®)

Easy to process
Kiri does not splinter and is easy to process manually and mechanically, absorbs stains and varnishes well and is very good for gluing