A new sauna facility has opened in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, designed by ujizono architects in collaboration with interior design firm bench. The KASAMABI Sauna, completed in 2025, represents a unique architectural approach that draws inspiration from the city's rich ceramic heritage while addressing modern wellness needs.
Kasama City has been renowned since the Edo period as a center for traditional Kasama ware and ceramics production. The 81-square-meter facility is situated in a complex environment surrounded by ceramics schools, art museums, golf facilities, and dense residential developments. According to the architects, the site presented unique challenges as a facility intended for use without clothing, creating what they described as "a four-sided siege situation, enclosed by buildings and open fields."
The architectural design draws direct inspiration from the climbing kilns scattered throughout Kasama City, reflecting the town's heritage as a ceramics center. The architects explained that their concept was based on creating spaces that serve dual purposes: "places where people linger" and "places where circulation flows," or alternatively, "places that preserve and retain urban and cultural heritage" and "places that generate fluid flows and activities." This philosophy guided the design to connect the surrounding context by allowing both air and people to move naturally through the space.
The exterior features walls clad in charred cedar, while the roof incorporates a single-slope design that directly references the climbing kilns found throughout the region. The roof is constructed with flat-laid metal sheets and adopts the locally common 3:5 slope ratio, ensuring architectural harmony with the surrounding buildings. An approach path using Inada stone gravel surrounds the building, creating clear visual boundaries for the site.
Interior design prioritizes functionality while maintaining aesthetic coherence with the exterior concept. The approach stairs are rendered in black concrete, a material specifically chosen to harmonize with the charred cedar cladding and Inada stone paving. The zoning places horizontal circulation paths and vertical axes strategically, integrating changing rooms, an indoor air bath, and toilet and shower facilities. This arrangement creates a clear floor plan where the sauna becomes visible from the approach, building anticipation for the wellness experience.
The open-air bathing area features a prominent 3-meter square atrium that serves multiple purposes. This design element blocks unwanted views from nearby hills while allowing natural light and wind to flow into the building. Symmetrically arranged around the central sauna are the cold plunge pool and warm bath facilities. Beneath the stairs, a ceramic bathtub fed by well water provides year-round consistent temperatures for the cold plunge experience.
The architects emphasized the building's relationship with nature, describing how it "confronts one with nature, distancing from daily clamor through the flickering flames of the wood stove, the sound of well water echoing within, light streaming through the atrium, and seasonal breezes flowing through the open-air bathing area." They drew parallels to the roji garden path in traditional tea houses, where the approach prepares visitors mentally for the main experience. Similarly, the building's axis leading to the sauna is designed to anticipate the experience of being warmed by the sauna and purified by the cold bath.
Through what the architects describe as "the tension and release of the sauna," combined with the building's inherent directionality and axis, the aim is to create a homogeneous space where natural energy permeates both interior and exterior environments. The project represents a successful integration of traditional Japanese architectural references with contemporary wellness facility requirements, photographed by Yosuke Ohtake.
