Location: Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Japan

Design Team: MABI ARCHITECTS

Area: Approx. 270 m²

Year: 2026

Photography: dig photograph

Design Features: Shizunoyu Fukushima transforms Enmeiyu, a 1983 neighborhood bathhouse near Fukushima Station in Osaka, into a men-only bathing facility. Designed by Yoshiji Takehara at the age of 35, the original building served its community for more than four decades. MABI ARCHITECTS reads the curved pools, tall bathing hall, exposed concrete and tiled murals as an operative spatial framework, inserting a sauna, cold plunge, outdoor bath, indoor lounge and bar without reducing the past to decoration.

The bathhouse’s distinctive curved pools remain central. Small white tiles wrap their rounded edges while dark-blue water and the bending ceiling gather the view. New and retained areas are linked through variations of blue, white and yellow tile rather than separated by an emphatic formal break. Much of the original tiling survives in the washing area, allowing the renewed cleanliness to retain the texture of time.

The former male and female changing and bathing zones are consolidated into a larger sequence. Timber lockers, glazed partitions and rough concrete columns sit side by side as entry, changing, bathing, sauna and rest spaces move gradually from brightness into shadow. New elements follow the inherited corners and axes, allowing the original order to remain legible through movement.

Deep-blue glazed tiles line the sauna, with timber benches arranged around the stove. Supply and exhaust points sit close to the heater so incoming air is warmed and carried through the room. Walls and ceiling receive 50–100 mm of insulation according to location, while the upper bench remains roughly 1.1 m below the ceiling. A door height of about 1.8 m and carefully calibrated bench dimensions bring heat, humidity and bodily scale into the same design problem.

Concrete, stone and timber give the cold plunge, outdoor bath and rest spaces a quieter register. Low lighting grazes rough walls and gravel floors, keeping traces of construction visible while forming a calm setting for cooling down. The bar and indoor lounge translate the conversational role of the sento into a contemporary social setting, making lingering part of the program again.

The renovation matters because it allows a strong existing architectural language to continue working. Curves, tiles and concrete carry memory; new services, insulation and circulation answer present-day use. Calibrated through scale and touch, the two layers let a neighborhood bathhouse sustain public life through a new operating model.

Design Team: Founded in 2025 by Nozomu Mabuchi and Ryuta Abiru, MABI ARCHITECTS works from Tokyo and Osaka on houses, saunas and other small-scale buildings. Its name combines the founders’ surnames while referring to ma and beauty: spatial, temporal and social intervals shaped without relying on passing trends.

MABI ARCHITECTS led the renovation design. Yusuke Sakurai designed the signage, Hiroaki Endo of NEWMAN Inc. created the logo, and Kikuchi Soken Co., Ltd. served as general contractor. Collaborators included SCIENCE Inc., Tile Capsule (BOWCS Inc.) and Nakamura Inc. Photography is by dig photograph.