Shigeru Ban Designs a Zen Nature Retreat for Japan’s Awaji Island

Award-winning architect Shigeru Ban revealed his design for a meditation retreat and zen wellness center made of wood. Dubbed “Zenbo Seinei”, the retreat takes the shape of an elongated and slender wooden structure elevated by steel columns, and is located on a greenery-filled site on Awaji Island in Japan—it is near completion and expected to open in spring.

It will be 90 meters long and 7.2 meters wide when it is finished. It will also have a 100-meter-long hardwood deck that will serve as an open-air zazen (sitting meditation) platform.

Courtesy of Pasona Group

Shigeru Ban is designing Zenbo Seinei for the Pasona Group, a Japanese corporation that manages a series of facilities on Awaji Island in Japan‘s Seto Inland Sea. The retreat will emphasize healthy eating and mindfulness, and it is geared at tourists looking to get away from the city and into nature.

Shigeru Ban’s Retreat Will Allow Visitors to “Experience Zazen”

Zazen is the Zen Buddhist tradition’s core practice, which is a meditative discipline. The purpose and method of zazen differ from school to school, but it can be thought of as a method of gaining insight into the essence of existence in general.

“We planned an accommodation facility where you can experience zazen on a small site with abundant nature on Awaji Island,”
—Explained Shigeru Ban Architects

The incentive to create the retreat is a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused “major shifts in people’s attitudes and values towards life and work,” according to the Pasona Group. The company grew an interest in opportunities that recreate satisfaction and contentment in natural settings, and in lifestyles that promote physical and mental well-being.

Courtesy of Pasona Group

In addition to the meditation spaces, Zenbo Seinei will have guest rooms and a restaurant that will serve meals created with local vegetables as well as cuisine enjoyed by Buddhist monks. Ban is also planning an open-air bath and a cafe on the 3,000-square-meter site, as well as a series of wooden cabins for future usage.

In 1985, Ban established Shigeru Ban Architects in Tokyo. In 2014, he was designated the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, and in 2021, he was named an ambassador for the EU’s New European Bauhaus. His firm also just finished the Tainan Art Museum in Taiwan, as well as a boutique hotel that winds through the Japanese forest.