Horai Onsen Bath House / Kengo Kuma

© Daici Ano

In Horai, Architect Kengo Kuma was chosen to design a traditional Japanese Onsen, a term for hot springs in the Japanese language.  As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth. Onsen were traditionally used as public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese domestic tourism. 

Horai Onsen Bath House technical information

It is my mission to use the kindness and delicateness that old architecture had. I believe that this mission is not easy to complete. So I am planning to work until I fall down.

– Kengo Kuma

Horai Onsen Bath House Photographs
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© Daici Ano

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Horai Onsen Bath House / Kengo Kuma

© Daici Ano

Horai Onsen Bath House / Kengo Kuma

© Daici Ano

Description by Kengo Kuma Architects

This is an outdoor bath with a roof for one of the leading hot spring inns in Japan that is located on a large slope in Atami overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The area where you take off your clothes, washing area and spa were planned in a continuous linear orientation on a long thin site on the cliff. The entire floor was covered with Japanese cypress boards, and the light corrugated plastic roof is supported by 60mm square steel posts.

A transparent roof and cypress were used in order to recreate the tradition of wooden structures in Japan in a contemporary manner.

Kengo Kuma’s Work

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