Ace Hotels has partnered with renowned Tokyo-based architecture firm Kengo Kuma and Associates to launch its first property in Japan. Slated for arrival in winter 2019, the Ace Hotel Kyoto will embrace the region’s industrial and imperial legacy in a transformed structure from the 1920s.
“The thought was to create a hotel that is connected to Kyoto and open to the surrounding area. To begin with, the proposition was to create a dense garden where communities, as well as the past and the present, are connected to this venerable land with its various gardens, which have existed since the Heian period,” Kuma says. “Every detail and material was thought through to connect the building, land, and history together.”
The Tetsuro Yoshida-designed red brick building will be modernized with a wooden grid system reminiscent of traditional Kyoto, while fine louvers and meshes will serve as environmental devices that gently filter light and wind. Local artists and craftspeople will infuse the hotel with a sense of place. The centrally located property will provide access to several regional destinations from Nishiki Market to the Museum of Kyoto and the Kyoto Art Center.
