Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto, Renovation

Under the project theme of “Warm Contemporary Japanese,” the design theme was to use diverse materials together with light and shadow to express Japanese design that has warmth. The operation of the entire hotel was suspended to remodel all shared areas, as well as the guest rooms, cladding, and seismic resistance. The shared areas of the first and second floors use various materials to express Japanese taste. Randomly-arranged louvers are used to give the image of a bamboo grove. The entrance and the overhang of the eaves are linked with wood-textured aluminum louvers, to produce unified continuity between interior and exterior. The floor is randomly paved in stone, in a way that is continuous with the outside, representing the stone-paved style of townhouses. The guest room corridors use wallpapers to match the theme of each floor, while the elevator halls use Karakami papers in the Kyoto style, to create the atmosphere of Kyoto. The guest rooms are designed with colors and motifs reminiscent of Kyoto taste, so that guest can enjoy the lingering feeling of coming back from a stroll around Kyoto. The facade uses aluminum louvers with the color of tarnished silver, assembled into lattices over the entire exterior, to express traditional Kyoto. It is lit up to give a further representation of Kyoto street scenery.