Project Story · 2025
Designing the perfect outdoor cooldown —
private villa ten ―kumano―
Hannan City, Osaka Prefecture
Exclusive-use private villa
Room Tour — YouTube
Watch the room tour →
When this project began, I visited sauna after sauna — and somewhere along the way, became a committed sauna person myself. This is Keiichi Horibe.
“The sauna is a tool. What you’re really after is the outdoor cooldown.”
Sauna temperature, humidity, the depth and temperature of the cold bath — all of these can be controlled through design. But the outdoor cooldown is different. No amount of equipment can substitute for the right place. For this project, we raised the floor level 3.5 meters to create distance from surrounding sight lines. The result: no insects, a constant gentle breeze, and a space where you can simply be still.
The sauna room uses a Harvia stove with self-löyly — guests can adjust humidity to their preference.
Asia Design Prize
The video covers the design process in full — including things we don’t usually talk about from the planning stage. Take a look.
