“The Residency” is the format that explores the pulse of contemporary leisure, one cultural trend at a time. A moment of reflection on how leisure is no longer pure escape, but a deeper territory of aesthetic, social, and personal transformation. This episode takes us to Japan and to the quiet rituals of bath culture, inspired by At the Onsen, the latest photographic series by Soo Burnell.

Curescape. A journey to escape—and to heal. Not just physically, but mentally.
Thermal baths, spas, wellness paths: places once tied exclusively to body recovery are now evolving into full sensory sanctuaries, rituals of presence in a world of constant distraction and frenzy. These are spaces where slowness is encouraged, rituals are preserved, and presence becomes tangible. We demand them not just to cleanse, but to recalibrate. To let the heat soften the grip of modern life. We ask the steam to fog up our minds. Just enough to forget, for a moment, all the weight of the everyday that we left outside.

These spaces are no longer only functional—they’ve become cultural. Going to a bath house or a public spa, many of which have been renovated and reimagined as architectural or design landmarks, is now like going to a museum or a cinema. They are gathering places, deeply embedded in local culture. Spaces not only for self-care, but for observation, for reflection, for connection and reconnection. Our request is one: we need to come in to take a break, and be ready to face the outside world once we leave, reconnecting with it in a new way. Cleaner.
It is exactly this dimension—between care and contemplation—that photographer Soo Burnell captures in her latest series At the Onsen.

In Japan, onsen and sento are not merely places for bathing—they are cultural institutions. They are communal and contemplative, architectural and intimate. In At the Onsen, Burnell captures this tension beautifully: the dialogue between personal silence and shared tradition, the geometric elegance of timber architecture against the softness of steam and skin.

From the mountains of Gunma Prefecture to the urban sentos of Tokyo, her images trace an emotional and geographic journey. Through her eyes, we begin to understand the bathhouse not as a luxury, but as a ritualized form of presence. A pause. A reconnection—with oneself, with others, with the world we left outside.
Spaces of care are evolving. And maybe, in an age of overstimulation, leisure may lie in the most ancient of gestures: entering warm water, letting go, and listening—to the sound of nothing but ourselves. To the stillness.