The book covers all aspects needed to design a functional, healthy, and delightful sauna, from heating and air quality to interior design. It instructs the reader how to master both tangible and intangible, visible and invisible elements of a sauna. The book puts a special emphasis on the sauna experience, living up to the belief that short-term satisfaction is the first step towards long-term health benefits. It features examples of contemporary Finnish sauna design and outlines why a true sauna experience is so much more than merely ‘a hot room’.

The Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design is based on the author’s intensive research, which spans five years, an extensive bibliography, and dozens of expert interviews. He has authored 200+ articles about sauna on his website saunologia.fi.

In 2019, Liikkanen published a book (in Finnish) titled Hyvien löylyjen salaisuus (roughly translated as ‘the secret of great steam’) which was released by a national publishing company, Rakennustieto. Now, he unveils the secrets of Finnish sauna design and construction for international audiences and, for the first time, reveals what it takes to create a truly great, Finnish-style sauna experience.

Although Finns enjoy sauna for the sheer pleasure of it, the goal of the book is to support the design of saunas in which time passes unnoticed and health benefits are easy to reach.