Kengo Kuma's firm Kengo Kuma and Associates has completed a new hotel on the shore of Lake Toya in Japan. The building was transformed from a nursing home into a tree-like boutique hotel.

Called We Hotel Toya, the building covers a 5,330-square-metre area and is designed as a typical boutique hotel that embraces nature and local materiality, as it is seen on Kuma's projects.

Situated on the shore of Lake Toya, the hotel's wooden façade is inspired by the abundant nature of Lake Toya and fabric materials covering the lobby and restaurant. 

The hotel includes guest rooms, wrapped in the serene air of Lake Toya, with a cypress open-air bath. In the rooms, wooden floors and wooden furnitures and fixtures reflect Kuma's style. 

The hotel contains other amenities in the same colour and material palette, including dining room, spa, Taru Bar the Hokkaido, a cigar bar, gift shop, karaoke room and restaurant. For the Taru Bar, the architect used a motif of sake brewery at the bar counter. 

The hotel's restaurant, called "EZO Cuisine", was designed with the concept of "delicious local blessings," the restaurant prioritizes the use of foods produced in the province. 

Kuma used a pleated cloth in the restaurant to create a cave-like space, and the space was constructed so that the water surface of Lake Toya appeared in front of the cave.

"By using the locally-made cedar logs for the facade and interior, a space of peace was created, as if it were in a cedar forest," said Kengo Kuma and Associates. 

"There is a wooden bathtub on the balcony of each guest room, and visitors can enjoy the view of Lake Toya while taking in the cypress scented bath."

Taru Bar the Hokkaido

Kengo Kuma recently completed a silent yoga and meditation space made from twigs within a forest in Germany. Kuma spoke to WAC in an exclusive interview and said "architecture has the power to bring people together". Kengo Kuma's Odunpazari Modern Art Museum comprised of wooden volumes is set to open in June in Turkey. 

All images © Kawasumi Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office

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