Japan 2017Yugawara Station Square
We planned the station building as an intermediate area like engawa, which connects railroad and town. Half-open, the engawa is not complete architecturally, and I thought that the station building should be like that, too.
Yugawara is one of Japan’s most famous hot springs, but unlike other resorts such as Hakone or Atami, there is no tall building in Yugawara, and is rather an assembly of small inns and it feels more human.
We thought the new station should be human-friendly as well, in harmony with the town, and designed it as a semi-open, semi-outdoor building, using louvers of cedar.
Water from the hot spring flows into the space underneath the louvers, and together with light as though filtering through the leaves of a tree, steam from water suffuses the area gently and warmly.
