Neri&Hu Design and Research Office Originally a Japanese army building from the 1930s, this boutique hotel reveals the history inscribed on its surfaces as you approach. The design task was to hold back in the restoration process and resist the natural urge to fix every flaw. We carefully distinguished where new elements would be inserted and what should remain untouched. Some spaces were refinished and smoothed, while others were left crude, exposing crumbling bricks and the lathwork behind deteriorating plaster. Encased in a glass shield, these raw wall surfaces take on the archival quality of a museum display, suddenly elevating the mundane to the precious.
At the same time, the project sought to erase the boundary between the public and the private, breaking down the visual, aural, and physical limits of personal space at various scales. The restaurant extends from the street deep into the inner courtyard, so the public realm penetrates into the core of the private sphere. The project raises questions about how to interpret ideas of home and domesticity in a foreign environment, and how to give meaning to the traveller’s experience. By challenging the basic rituals of daily life and transforming familiarity into unpredictability, the design amplifies the constant interplay between comfort and discomfort.

Neri&Hu Design and Research Office