Unique hospitality offering Not A Hotel in Japan, by Shinji Hamauzu and Suppose Design Office, has won Best Timeshare at Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023
When Shinji Hamauzu quit working for Zozo Group, one of Japan’s leading fashion retailers, in early 2020, he told his friends he wanted to go into the hotel business. Everyone advised him against it. ‘This was in the middle of Tokyo’s Covid lockdown and everyone thought I was crazy,’ he says. Hamauzu persevered. He wasn’t planning on ‘just’ building and running yet another hotel.
‘It was important to signify that we were completely different from your regular hotel,’ Hamauzu explains. ‘The usual route to building a hotel is to secure funding, build, and then start selling rooms by the day and hope for a good occupancy rate.’ But instead, Hamauzu intended to treat each ‘room’ as a timeshare, selling it to 12 people, each getting 30 days’ worth of use.
The larger of the two structures, titled ‘Masterpiece’, is clad in Corten steel and the interior features a mix of natural stone, hardwood and exposed concrete. A spacious living room with a sculptural fireplace opens out onto a large terrace offering far-reaching views of the landscape. There are four bedrooms, a cosy lounge, a pool, a natural hot spring bath and a sauna. Hamauzu and Tanijiri are self-proclaimed sauna aficionados. ‘I am a huge sauna fan. No sauna, no life,’ says Tanijiri.
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