When the City of Gothenburg wanted to revitalise its battered harbour front, as part of its wider scheme to regenerate the Jubilee Park and Frihamnen areas, the architects in charge – Raumlabor – turned to the country's rich sauna bathing tradition for inspiration.

They planned to create a project called Bathing Culture, with a first phase being the building of a beach and the incredible Sauna in Frihamnen.

As the architects explained: "Public baths were once an intense place for social gathe­rings in our cities. They were places not only for relaxation and sport but also for politics, discussion, business deals, eroticism, hedonism and crime.

"This has been lost in our cities and substituted with more bleak and leisure-based public swimming pools and spas. We see the baths as a social space to meet people, spend time together and discuss life. The sensorial qualities of the baths provide us with a place where there is no competition, consumption or spectacle, but where the focus is purely on sharing spaces and thoughts, and enjoying and benefiting from the water."

The 20-seater sauna building, constructed by volunteers out of local recycled materials, has bank-side changing rooms, riverside walkways and landscaping.

Phase two will see the creation of a public bath next to or in the river, as well as outdoor water play, cultural buildings, a roller derby track and an urban garden space.

Now the city's audacity in creating the sauna has been rewarded with news it has won the architects of Sweden Västra Götalands architecture prize for 2015.

The building is also one of 4 nominees for the Kasper Salin-priset 2015 – the National Swedish Architecture Award, which will be announced on 19 November 2015.

The City of Gothenburg's Jubilee Park scheme has a development time frame of seven years – from 2014 to 2021 – the city's 400th anniversary – and is part of the wider RiverCity strategy which has been conceived with the aim of regenerating the urban landscape.

The city has chosen to celebrate its 400th year by developing the north side of its river to make it equally attractive as a place to live and work when compared with the south side.

The structural plan shows a network of public spaces, new cycle and pedestrian links, low level, high density housing and waterfront leisure development.

The original docks will be downsized to be more humanscale, while existing buildings will be repurposed and new bridges built. The philosophy will be ‘Swedish soul: life on the water’ ‘Open to the world’ and ‘Public bathing and fun in the city.’ The RiverCity Gothenburg project covers over four square kilometres and includes improvements in environmental, economic and social aspects of the city.