The Upper Bench 013: Dr. Lassi "Al" Liikkanen is an Adjunct Professor of Human-centered product design at Aalto University in Finland. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings in the fields of product design, interactive technology, music psychology and cognitive neuroscience - and naturally sauna.At present he works full-time in the Finnish industry around digital transformation and interaction design. As a hobby he collects, creates, digitalizes and disseminates sauna-related knowledge through Saunologia.fi website accessed annually by over 400,000 Finnish visitors. In 2019, he authored a book, Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design, available also in English since 2021.Lassi’s ambition is to help improve the quality of Finnish style saunas from Earth to Mars. To this end, his research interests focus on sauna technology and design, although he remains widely interested in history, culture and health aspects of sauna.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:03:55) How can American sauna culture be expanded?

(00:08:14) Can I use hardwoods in my sauna?

(00:14:26) Passive ventilation vs mechanical ventilation for electric sauna?

(00:28:03) Collecting vs buying sauna rocks

(00:29:29) What's the best sauna you've been in?

(00:42:00) Are barrel saunas really saunas?

(00:45:51) What are your experiences with tent saunas?

(00:58:42) Should health benefits be a motivating factor for sauna use?

(01:06:18) What are your two favorite sauna books?

(01:10:33) What stove would you use in a tent sauna?

(01:14:24) Thoughts on infrared?