Azusa designed the Daiwa Roynet Hotel Ginza, by appointment of the client. Fortunately, that design was received well and the client has since come to us for a number of projects in Japan and abroad. The Daiwa Royal Ariake South K District Project* is extensive in size, involving the construction of the largest Roynet Hotel in terms of number of rooms. Although belonging to the same Roynet series, each hotel is located in a different place with different surroundings, thus requiring different solutions. In this project, too, we made a conscious effort to consider as thoroughly as possible how to leverage the geographic characteristics.

The project site is situated between Kokusai-tenjijo Station of the Rinkai Line and Ariake Station of the Yurikamome Line. Our central mission at the project was therefore to make the most of the site’s location by creating a spacious promenade that connects the two stations.

We went beyond simply connecting them, paying special attention to the smoothness of the connection.

In fact, as the two stations differ in height by about four meters, it is not easy to travel between them at present. In this project, we decided to build an about 15-meter-wide roofed promenade with a dynamic atrium as high as 10 meters directly in the center of the hotel-retail complex, turning an inherent disadvantage into an advantage. This design adds impact to the front face of the complex. Equipped with elevators and other barrier-free amenities, the promenade will enable everyone to move around in comfort and also avoid the rain. Having the spacious promenade at the center is expected to generate a constant flow of people and invigorate the complex.

This project intends to create a place that will welcome the guests to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. To that end, the roofed promenade incorporates an impressive, sophisticated lighting design in collaboration with world-renowned lighting designer Akari Lisa Ishii of I.C.O.N. Given the check-in time of most hotel guests, they will look at this hotel for the first time at night. Envisaging that situation, we placed particular emphasis on the lighting design so that the hotel will be able to welcome the guests in a pleasant atmosphere.

We highlighted a Japanese flair in the architectural design. The exterior accentuates delicate, vertical lines to create a Japanese ambience. The roofed promenade employs a design inspired by a Japanese wood paneling technique. The interior design is a fusion of the stylishness of metropolitan Tokyo and the coziness of traditional Japan. By incorporating a Japanese feel everywhere, our design aims to have both domestic and international guests recognize the attractiveness of Japan.

We had intense discussions on how to produce appealing designs within the given constraints and how to tie them into structural and facility designs. I feel that the existence of younger members allowed us to freely propose and discuss ideas with each other.

We really discussed a great deal. When an issue arose on which the member in charge of that area could not compromise, we worked the issue out through discussion. As the project entailed many unique constraints that we had not encountered in previous Roynet Hotel projects, such as the site and environmental conditions, we needed to employ novel methods. In fact, not only Azusa but also the client introduced a number of new approaches in this project. To overcome various constraints, I tried to make facility plans that faithfully reflect the thoughts of the client and the conceptual design team as they worked together to create a high-quality complex, paying careful attention to detail.

Any architectural issues can be put into drawings, whether costs, structure, facility performance, or design. Whenever there was a meeting, I would make an effort to put my ideas into concrete drawings beforehand, then present my explanations visually and verbally during the meeting. In that way, I tried to facilitate discussion by making the other members clearly understand the reason for my advocating that idea.

The Daiwa Royal Ariake South K District Project^* was awarded to Azusa as a result of us having supervised some of the client’s projects. Therefore, we always kept it in mind to reflect all feedback received from the client in the past. As this project ran concurrently with other Daiwa Roynet Hotel projects, we shared our insight with the members of those projects. Through this and other measures, we endeavored to increase the value of the services provided by our domain as a whole.

The client told us that things had turned around since Azusa’s participation. We are really honored to receive such a comment. We have devoted ourselves wholeheartedly to creating excellent buildings. It may be this earnest attitude toward architecture that has enabled us to build a relationship of trust with the client.