Hoshinoya Tokyo
Azuma Architect & Associates, Japan
HOSHINOYA Tokyo” is a Japanese ryokan in Tokyo. This project is in a special district designated for urban regeneration and is part of a third phase of the Otemachi redevelopment. This area is designated as an office district and, as a place of accommodation, the building provides world class services. Under such circumstances, we tried to express the Japanese “ryokan” style with a modern twist.
To make extraordinary architecture for everyday life of the Otemachi office district, which includes buildings over 150 meters high, we covered HOSHINOYA Tokyo with a screen of Edo komon fabric to create a soft façade like the Japanese Jubako multi-tiered food box and to hide its façade as a “Building.” Edo komon patterns look solid from a distance, with a delicate pattern that emerges as one looks closer. Because of this effect, people walking in Otemachi can enjoy both the delicate façade at close view and the façade as a black box from a distance. The lower part of the building is mainly made of glass, and its interior structure is combined with exterior modules. The building creates a new landscape in this office district, and the extraordinary ryokan emerges at Marunouchi Naka-dori, a popular Tokyo illumination spot.
With a ceiling of over five meters high, the main entrance takes guests from the street to a completely new world in the form of a peaceful Japanese ryokan. Guests remove their shoes and walk on a tatami mat from the main entrance to the elevator, through the corridor, and to the guest rooms. Each floor consists of six guest rooms with a communal living room in the middle called “Ochanoma Lounge.”
Staff are stationed in the lounge to meet guests’ every need, just like “Okami” (female mistress of ryokan) in traditional ryokans. This modern ryokan allows guests to immerse themselves in Japanese culture by walking barefoot in comfortable clothes through the living room, hallway, public bath, etc. On the top floor, one can find a natural hot spring with an open roof top. You can feel a new Tokyo by wind, sound, and sky.
Originally appeared in Modus News 8
Azuma Architect & Associates
Rie Azuma was born in Osaka, Japan in 1959. She graduated from Japan Women’s University, the School of Architecture at Tokyo University, and the Graduate School of Architecture at Cornell University. She established Azuma Architect & Associates in 1986. She has designed many ryokans and resorts such as “HOSHINOYA Karuizawa,” “HOSHINOYA Kyoto,” “HOSHINOYA Taketomi Island,” “HOSHINOYA Fuji,” “HOSHINOYA Tokyo,” and “HOSHINOYA Bali.” She has also designed several commercial facilities, including “HARUNIRE TERRACE,” “TONBONOYU,” and “SEAPAL-PIER ONAGAWA,” and apartment houses such as “Kikkoshin.”
Architect: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei Inc., Hotel Architect: AZUMA ARCHITECT & ASSOCIATES, Lighting consultants: Illumination of City Environment, Photographer: Nacása & Partners Inc.