The work here is a refurbishment of the Hotel Kikyou’s large old public bath. The owners wanted to create new outer baths within the limited space available on the first and second floors, incorporating a marked contrast between bright and dark, and with interchangeable men’s and women’s bathrooms for the morning and evening. We proposed the creation of a large combined space for the inner and outer bathrooms by unifying them in terms of their forms and materials.

In addition, we proposed further highlighting the contrast between bright and dark through the selection of different-textured finishing materials characterized by “powerfulness and gentleness.” Materials displaying traces of handiwork were chosen, including black granite stone, black stone tiles, and black cedar boards on the first floor, with a pebble casting surface featuring 7–9 mm white and brown pebbles, diatomaceous earth, and white cypress boards on the second floor. The completed large communal bathrooms are called “Kuro-no- yu” (Black Spring) on the first floor and “Shiro-no- yu” (White Spring) on the second floor. The two bathrooms are spaces in which visitors can relax and simply enjoy a memorable experience at the hot spring in Yamashiro.

There was a strong wish, through the design, to create a resonance between the space and people, achieved through the use of incoming natural daylight and based on the deployment of its form, materials, and water surface.