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Sitting high on a hill between the mountains and the rice fields, this public bath overlooks a picturesque fishing village surrounding a south-facing bay on Japan's Noto Peninsula. The site of ancient Jomon settlements, these rice fields are now being prepared for excavation.
The original Jomon dwellings, large roofs covering shallow pits dug into the ground, were the inspiration for our approach to the bath design: as landscape form covered by roofs.
The building was designed integrally with the adjacent park so the two worked together as one.
Continuous landscape forms weave in, under and around the roofs, columns and baths. Individual baths "escape" from under the roofs and move out into the landscape. There is a wonderful indoor/outdoor feel to these spaces that are part landscape and part building. Rather than one large structure, the design was conceived as a group of buildings gathered around a common outdoor terrace open to the rice fields and sea beyond.
Another key intention was to make the men's bath formally, experientially, and symbolically different from the women's bath.
the men's bath
roof detail
We visited many old folk houses of the Noto Peninsula and were inspired by the light and mystery of their timber roof structures.
Our aim was to achieve a similar mystery, by creating roof volumes animated by light, shadow and rising steam.
the women's bath
Designing as the building went up, we were able to make on site decisions such as how to perforate the roofs and let light into the large bath spaces.
Since the baths are built as mostly roof and ground, with minimal wall, the doors are achieved by simply lifting a piece of roof.
The central terrace between the two baths is where you gather to relax after bathing and take in long views out over the Sea of Japan.
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