Ritzwell Furnishes the New Okura Hotel in Tokyo

27/12/2022 - In Higashiyama, historical district in Tokyo, the new Okura Hotel is located among ancient temples and lush surrounding nature. Here, Ritzwell’s wooden furniture dialogue with architecture, in balance between tradition and modernity.

Created by a Japanese design firm Rens/Nomura Co., Ltd., the Hotel Okura Kyoto Okazaki Bettei is “conceived as a place that can show guests the new face of Kyoto, aimed at taking its millennial artistic and craft culture into the immediate future, the hotel sets out to become an important destination in Japanese hospitality”  As the designers explain. MARCEL Chair, CLAUDE Armchair, (design Shinsaku Miyamoto) and BLAVA Easy Chair (design Atelier D.Q.) by Ritzwell make a fundamental contribution to achieving this goal. "One of the reasons why we choose these furnishings," the architects emphasise, "is because, with their high quality in design as well as in production, they embody the aesthetic heritage of the Japanese tradition and in this sense they are perfectly in line with the concept of the hotel”.

The spectacular architectural shape, echoing the hipped roofs of the city’s temples, opens outwards with broad windows to create a strong osmosis between the interiors and the Japanese-style garden. The spacious common areas, which are essential in their distribution and fluid and dynamic in their connections, are warmed up by CLAUDE Armchair and BLAVA Easy Chair  combined with a contemporary décor made with precious natural materials like wood and bamboo.  The large glass windows in the many relaxation areas of the sumptuous hall overlook the garden of the nearby Okazaki Betsuin Temple. All the conversation areas for guests, which are located along the sides of the corridors, are intimate and reserved and framed by horizontal lower ceilings with in-built indirect lighting reminiscent of the typical rooftops of Kyoto’s cityscape.  Made-to-measure shelving systems in wood with hand-crafted bamboo paneling create an elegant atmosphere in the restaurant serving French cuisine that alternates open areas with other more intimate ones, divided by dedicated partitions. Ritzwell's MARCEL Chairs placed into this environment “have a beauty in their curves that seem to wrap around, with a design that harmonizes the space while adding rhythm.” The rooms located on the upper floors welcome guests with two lanterns, in an atmosphere evoking the Japanese tea ceremony. The bed alcove is defined by wooden wainscoting with a small upper overhang hosting decorative pillars made in the typical local Kitayamasugi wood. The bed headboards are enveloped in Nishijin-ori textile from Hosoo and resemble the slightly rippled lakeshore water surface. Each environment distinguishes itself with a specific and carefully studied décor. Co-created with GO ON, an organisation composed by six craftsmen specialised in traditional arts, the hotel is lit up by the presence of their valuable works in wood, lacquer, tin, glass, and ceramics. The walls are decorated with the paintings of Japanese painter Tokuro Kojima. The MARCEL Chairs, which are combined with comfortable sofas in fabric inside the restaurant, and the CLAUDE Armchairs and BLAVA Easy Chairs in the common areas and guest rooms add quality to any space. “A choice – as the designers specify – dictated by the elegant and discrete aesthetics of the brand derived from the Japanese Wabi-sabi philosophy and the knowledge of Higashiyama culture which the project is inspired on”.

Ritzwell on Archiproducts