Bath House

2022
300m2
Memu Hokkaido

日本語

Originally the site was used as a horse training facility with outdoor and indoor running tracks.

The building plan is combination of keeping the track memory and laying down the required functional program with the circulation following the elliptical track and the functional volumes stretching out from it in a radial manner. This configuration allows every volume a distinct view of the surrounding landscape and identifies private outdoor spaces in between.

The program includes a changing room/toilet, a lounge, two private baths, a sauna, and a massage room. The structure is conceived as a series of radial timber portals that stretch from one side of the building to the other without intermediate supports, the walls are not extended to the ceiling to make the whole building feel like one big space under the same roof.

On the outside, a uniform timber cladding ties everything together balancing the tension between the centrifugal forces of the circulation and the volumes escaping from it.