Hasta La Ideas

Undulating timber panels line the walls and ceiling of a Japanese hotel room renovated by Touhoku University students.

The project entailed the modernisation of the Hourai 1111 suite in the Kameya Hotel, which is located in the Yamagata prefecture.

Lengths of cypress wrap around the main room to create beds, which face windows with a sea view.

The timber also curls below the windows to create a bench and raised platform.

Doorways on one wall lead to an entrance hallway and study, opposite to a duplicate upside-down doorway that leads to bath, shower and wash rooms.

These three adjoining bathrooms are finished with black paint and tiles, contrasting with the light-coloured spaces elsewhere in the suite.

Other recent Japanese projects with unusual interiors include a house with a basket-weaved timber wall and another designed around the movement of the client’s pet cat – see all our stories about Japan here.

Photography is by Shin Suzuki.

Here are some more details about the project:

By inviting many architects to renovate some standardized rooms, a Japanese-style hotel Kameya (Kame means a turtle) has been trying bringing diversity and prosperity of a town to the large old-fashioned hotel.

Hourai project, the industry-university cooperating project, is a part of Kameya’s renovation project. The top floor of the hotel is renovated as a executive one.

Cooperated by Prof. Masayoshi Takeuchi (Mikan) and associate prof. Masataka Baba (Open A) in Touhoku University of Arts and Design, the regional university and their students designed one of the room.

Also, cooperated by associate prof. Daisuke Nakayama (Daicon. Inc), his student designed graphic arts of the floor. Yasutaka Yoshimura (Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects) was in charge of the project management and designed rest of the rooms of the floor.

Because of the legend of Mt. Hourai-san, where the mysterious turtle and Japanese gods are said to live in, the director of this project, Hiroyuki Komatsu (K.K.H.K Brand Design), gave us a concept Hourai.

Hourai 1111 (Design: Touhoku University of Arts and Design)

It was designed as a big one room to see the horizon through the horizontally long windows with lying on the huge bed. The room is consist of curved surface, which is made of cypress wainscot of 40mm width. And it makes visitors feel so relaxed as if they were enwrapped by something, or they are in the clouds on the Mt. Hourai-san. The big room was arranged as if it whiteouts, on the other hand, the 2 bath rooms were designed as a dark black rooms. One is for the ocean view in front of the room, the other is for a meditation.

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