Excerpt: Itomachi Hotel 0, designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, is a zero-energy hotel in Saijo that redefines hospitality as a community hub. Inspired by the city’s pure “Uchinuki” water, the design separates functions with a large central garden that serves as a social and environmental focal point, expanding the definition of hotel. It blends sustainability, local culture, and post-pandemic lifestyle into a new model of exchange and connection.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] We designed a Zero Energy hotel as a community hub for the city of Saijo, which is known as a source of clean “Uchinuki” well water from Mt. Ishizuchi, considered to be a sacred mountain.
In 2016, KENGO KUMA LABORATORY at the University of Tokyo began creating a master plan for new environmentally-friendly cities based on the theme of water entitled the “Itomachi Project” in close cooperation with partners in each locale. Workshops have been conducted with local residents, individual architectural competitions have been held for young architects, and the “Itomachi” network has been built based on these processes.
The “Itomachi” network was used as a node and symbol to design this hotel as a new base of exchange with a new post-coronavirus pandemic age lifestyle that transcends the solving of global environmental problems.
The reception wing that is open to the community is completely separated from the lodging wing, and a large “garden” was created in the area between them from which pure “Uchinuki” water bubbles out, which is utilized as an outdoor living room, performance space for events and a camp yard. This consists of an attempt to expand the definition of hotels using the “garden” concept.
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