Onsen-Inspired Tower Breaks New Ground for ‘City Zen’

In the shadow of Crown Casino’s entertainment precinct, a developer is creating spaces designed for quiet contemplation and ritual cleansing. What happens when centuries-old Japanese bathing traditions meet contemporary Australian apartment living? Holder East’s $80-million presales at its onsen-inspired development suggest buyers are eager to find out. Melbourne’s first urban onsen—Sento—will open at Southbank as a 48-storey tower designed by FK around mental wellness rather than just physical fitness. An onsen is a traditional Japanese hot spring and inn, where geothermally heated mineral waters are used for bathing, and the surrounding facilities provide spaces for relaxation, cleansing and ritual. The development at 56 Clarendon Street combines 140 residential apartments with a 126-room boutique hotel across the tower’s lower nine levels. Residents will have access to a Japanese bathhouse, private teahouse, landscaped gardens, an expansive sky garden, yoga room and gymnasium. FK associate and interior designer Sarah Kirby says the design philosophy stems from Japanese cultural principles that prioritise mindful attention to routine activities. “There’s just so much attention to care and respect for everyday things,” Kirby tells The Urban Developer . “Our design tries to reflect this thinking from the minute you step into the building. There’s a clear design focus on the journey from outside to inside, where you can escape the craziness and hustle and bustle of the city. “It has this humble, quiet confident quality. From ground floor, the finishes are pared back, you have this beautiful, tactile, natural or handcrafted quality in finishes. We have a water feature. There’s the sensory overlay in a lot of the spaces from the corridors to the common areas. “It’s sensory rich but really pared back and beautiful so you can just pause and appreciate everything.” FK partner James Pearce says the architectural strategy for Sento, which means ‘bathhouse’ in Japanese, works to balance urban connectivity with personal retreat, responding to the area’s intense activity by creating spaces that “offer residents the choice to engage with the surrounding energy when desired”. Delete “When you get home, you have your respite and your calm and your peacefulness and your ability to sort of inwardly focus a bit more,” Pearce tells The Urban Developer . Holder East’s connection to Japanese culture influenced the concept. “They really appreciate and respect it, and they actually have an onsen hotel in Japan and wanted to bring some of those lovely elements here,” Kirby says. Traditional onsen facilities require careful spatial sequencing. “Everything’s just very sequential, and everything is designed around shaping this journey through the space, so entry, immersion, cleansing, and then leaving,” she says. Level nine exclusively serves residents with six baths including cold-plunge facilities, incorporating the Japanese design principle called ma —a philosophy of negative space, pauses, and intervals that adds meaning to an artwork or experience. “We’ve designed it so that residents can come out and have space to meditate, to ponder, to look inwards,” Kirby says. “It’s about having space and space to reflect; it’s not overcrowding or overstimulating.” Hotel guests will access 14 private onsen rooms across levels seven and eight, featuring baths, showers, massage tables, and sauna facilities. Separate entry journeys mean guests and residents will each follow a different pathway from ground level that Pearce says is part of the wellness experience. “There’s a bit of a journey through to the lift core, and then there is that moment where you can just pause and have the worries of the outside world, perhaps melt away.” ▲ Amenities include Japanese bathhouse with cold-plunge facilities and private teahouse where residents can experience monthly tea-making classes. The project emphasises mental wellness over conventional fitness amenities. Pearce would like to see Sento set a benchmark for a broader shift in apartment design priorities. “The onsen style of wellness is more about mental health and mental wellness than it is about physical wellness,” Pearce says. Pearce contrasts this approach with typical amenity spaces that become “almost outward facing” where residents might feel “on show” or compelled to document activities for social media. It addresses what he sees as a modern preoccupation with external validation over personal wellbeing. “I think we’re more about how do I appear to everyone else than we are about how do I appear to me?” he says. The Eastern wellness approach prioritises internal reflection over measurable achievements, focusing on “how you think about it rather than the actual achievements that you might tick off on paper”. The design at street level incorporates materials such as timber elements, crafted door handles, and varied material layers that emphasise craftsmanship and tactile engagement rather than the “glassy and hard” elements Pearce says is endemic to Southbank. While Japanese aesthetics are mainly concentrated in the interior spaces, the tower’s exterior features a bronze-coloured ribbon connecting ground-level materials to a crown element at the summit “providing visual coherence while creating an identifiable skyline presence”. For FK, the project represents an authentic integration of Eastern wellness principles rather than superficial theming. “It’s not something we’ve applied ‘on top’,” Pearce says. “It’s intrinsic to the space and the form, which is always what we aim for in our buildings.” ▲ The 48-storey tower features a bronze-coloured ribbon connecting street level to crown. Holder East has attracted interstate and international buyers seeking wellness-focused city living. Market response has exceeded expectations with around 60 apartments already sold. Apartments start from $740,000. Penthouses on levels 36 to 48 will launch later in the year but are reportedly starting at about $10 million. Construction tendering is under way with work expected to begin in February 2026. The project is one of the few remaining development opportunities in Southbank’s prime precinct, building on Holder East’s portfolio that includes the $280-million Oasis Residences in South Melbourne and properties in Japan including the Toya Onsen Hotel Hanabi in Hokkaido. Holder East chief of operations C.J. Wu believes Melbourne is “on the cusp of a significant transformation, with population growth, major infrastructure investment and relative value compared with other states all drawing renewed attention to the city”. “[Now] we try to bring the Japanese lifestyle into apartment living,” Wu says. “Sento is designed to offer balance and clarity in the urban context, drawing inspiration from Japanese wellness traditions. “From the private teahouse to the secluded onsen garden, every detail reflects the city-zen spirit, one that prioritises rest, ritual and architectural calm.” Sento’s $80-million presales performance may signal that the apartment market is ready to embrace wellness-focused living as more than just a passing trend.

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Leon Della Bosca
Mon 29 Sep 25

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ResidentialLeon Della BoscaMon 29 Sep 25

Onsen-Inspired Tower Breaks New Ground for ‘City Zen’

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Leon Della Bosca
Mon 29 Sep 25