2015

​

Backgrounds

​

Before I went to Finland, I never realized that I love Ofuro that much.

In Finland exits the habit of taking a sweat bathing called “sauna”.

Sauna originated in antique Finland and it is still an indispensable elemnet in Finnish people lifes’.

During my studying days in Finland, I saw lots of Finnish students in Otanieimi having bath on a very weird way. They took a big plastic pool, those we use for children, and lled it with hot water.

It was such a surprise to see them with a beer in one hand having fun in a plastic pool lled with hot water.

They did the hot pool bathing when they have a party or at school events, which happened quite often.

This really impressed me because it is a lot of work to ll a big plastic pool with hot water.

Until that since in Finland there is no bath tub in the bathrooms I thought Finns did not like to be in hot water. However they actually like it, sadly there’s no Sento or hot springs like we have in Japan.
In contrast, the word “sauna” or “löyly” (steam in English) is now

getting common in Japan through the so-called “super sento”.

However the sweat bathing introduced in Japan as Finnish style sauna are

quite different from the actual Finnish Sauna.

These facts gradually made me very interested in different bathing habits,

especially in the di erence between Finland and Japan bathing style.

​

Purpose of this study

​

My rst attempt was to study following historical backgrounds

both traditional Finnish sauna and Japanese Ofuro. Then based on this study,
I design and develop an original outdoor bathing place,

which mixes Finnish sauna and Japanese Ofuro elements.

This proposal is for students of Aalto University and the site is in Otaniemi.

Here my intention was not to propose a traditional Japanese Ofuro,

which would be very diffcult to reproduce in Finland and would not suit Otaniemi.

The main idea is to propose a Ofuro where people can experience Japanese style bathing

and still enjoy the dash of Finnish sauna essence.

Here we propose a Roten-buro (open-air) style bath and for that the
site chosed is located on Otaniemi shore line, and has beautiful sky and beach views.
Through this Roten-buro proposal, I intend to show Finnish people a di erent meanings a hot tub bath may have.