KYOTO GRANBELL HOTEL

The challenge is to create a hotel space that fuses Kyoto’s traditional spaces and materials into functions of today’s compact accommodations. Hotel’s semi-underground lobby is a contemporary version of a “Doma” (an intermediate space) admiring 3-meter-deep sunken bamboo gardens on both sides just as if the space is floating. Having as the center the bar counter that resembles a Japanese golden hoarding, the lobby floor is seamlessly connected 360 degrees and creates a lively public space. Traditional materials were revived in a contemporary design: 150-year-old drawers and ranmas function at the front desk and at the bar, and the columns and furniture were designed with hand-made roofing tiles and golden wood pieces by artisans. Inspired by spot gardens of traditional townhouses, the underground public baths cherishes inner gardens with artificial skylights. The space is emotionally designed to reproduce Kyoto’s ordinary life scenes with different ambient lighting according to the time of the day.