Kumano-Bettei Nakanoshima

The reconstruction plan for the Hotel Nakanoshima, which is managed by Nankai Group Nakanoshima. The plan site is on Nakanoshima, a small island in Nachikatsuura Bay. Under the concept of “One unique hotel on one island,” this project redeveloped the inn by demolishing three of the four guest room blocks, leaving only Chomontei (with 34 rooms of the previous 139), and adding a new building called Naginosho, with 10 rooms, to create a high-grade Japanese-style resort. At the same tine, the inn was rebranded under the name “Aoki-shima no Yado Kumano-bettei Nakanoshima.” The new building is a steel-framed three-story structure. It has the front desk, lounge, and back office on the first floor, and guest rooms on the second and third floors. The guest rooms are of 40 to 70 m², and every room has an open-air bath on its balcony. With the concept of holy Kumano and the themes of “Sea of Kumano” and “Mountain of Kumano,” we created spaces to inspire feelings of high class and Japanese modern style. The exterior design also gives that feeling of Japanese modern style, with black as its base tone, the sloped roof required by the hotel’s location in a national park, the horizontal lines of the balconies on each floor, and the decorative columns and vertical lattice railings. A new garden was developed, facing the new building. The rubble that was used in the sea as temporary staging during the demolition of the old buildings was reused to create a low-cost but impressive forecourt and approach space.