Type: New bathhouse
Location: Shibata-gun, Miyagi
Method: Traditional Japanese wooden construction
Tsuchikabe walls reinforced by bamboo laths
Total floor area: 59.4 m2
Completed: 2008
Design/construction: Seyseysha

This is a large bathhouse with a joined wooden frame and tsuchikabe walls at the hot-spring inn.
For the building materials, we used hiba (type of Japanese cypress) from Aomori Prefecture and chestnut which are hard to decay even in humid environments.
I sought good durability by adopting the tsuchikabe walls, clay reinforced by bamboo laths, further similar to nature.
A big roof rests upon six big logs of Aomori hiba crossed in length and width. It makes for a drastic widely space.

To lead to the sense of “secluding oneself”, there’re closed-in space purposely coming only slight light from lattices of a small roof called Koyane, to let air out on the top, and small windows attached on the bottom of the walls.
The sound of hot water that you can only hear in there takes you to otherworldly atmosphere with a quiet and calm.