Setouchi Retreat Aonagi (formerly Elleair Square Matsuyama)

The Setouchi Retreat Aonagi (瀬戸内リトリート 青凪) began in 1998 as Elleair Square Matsuyama (エリエールスクエア松山), on a hill in the municipality of Matsuyama. The paper maker Daio Paper (大王製紙) had it built as a guesthouse, with rooms and a pool, and opened part of it to the public as the Elleair museum (エリエール美術館), as part of its cultural sponsorship in its home prefecture of Ehime. The design is by Tadao Ando's office.

Daio Paper closed the museum on 29 April 2015, announcing that it would consider a new use for a building it considered valuable. It became a hotel open to the general public, under Ando's supervision: semi-open-air baths and a spa were added, and the hotel opened in December 2015, run by the company Onko Chishin (温故知新). At the opening, Ando said he hoped people from all over Japan and the world would come to stay.

The building stands on a small hill with a view of the Seto Inland Sea; Ando speaks of a sea where more than five hundred islands, large and small, float. It has a main building of five storeys above ground and a basement, and an annex of four storeys above ground and a basement. The concrete is left bare.

Ando himself describes the idea: a pool that projects toward the sea, a sunken court surrounded by sky, water and greenery, guest rooms open to the seascape. Each space has its own character without being cut off from the others, and sightlines and spaces cross and overlap. The building also has a long corridor where natural light comes in.

The outdoor pool is 30 m long and its water appears to run on into the sea; it adjoins the art lounge. Inside, there is a heated pool, a hot-spring jacuzzi and a sauna from which a garden can be seen.

The seven suites range from 102.5 to 169.6 m2. The largest, in the main building, is a maisonette: living room below, bedroom and a jacuzzi-type bathroom upstairs, and a large floor-to-ceiling glass window on the Seto landscape. In the annex, four suites have a semi-open-air hot-spring bath; a fifth, in the basement, opens onto a garden with a wooden balcony.

Today it is a seven-suite hotel. Dinner, a seasonal Japanese meal made with regional produce, and a Japanese breakfast are served in the dining room, at a counter or a table, facing large windows; there is no lunch. Artworks are shown in various places in the hotel, which also has an art lounge, a gallery and a shop.

The spa, with two treatment suites, works with citrus products from the region. The private pool and its sauna are hired by the hour, and there is no communal bath: the hot-spring water is in the baths of some suites and in the private pool's jacuzzi.

The place is a hotel reserved for its guests: visits without a stay are not offered. Only spa treatments can be booked without an overnight stay, from 10:00 to 22:00; the pool, the hot-spring baths and the restaurant are not open to passing visitors. As a rule, check-in is from 15:00 (last check-in 19:30) and check-out is by 11:00.

The address is 794-1 Yanaidani-machi, Matsuyama. Allow 35 minutes by car from JR Matsuyama Station (18 km) and 50 minutes from the airport (30 km); follow the signs for Elleair Golf Club Matsuyama. Outdoor parking is free. There is no shuttle, but the hotel can arrange a taxi at a preferential rate for its guests, booked three days ahead. The large outdoor pool is open only in summer.