Ginzan Onsen Fujiya

Ginzan Onsen Fujiya
Architect: Kengo Kuma
Spolupráce:Makoto Shirahama, Sayaka Mizuno
Address: Ginzanshinbata 4 3 3, Ginzan Onsen, Japan
Investor:Atsushi Fuji
Completion:2002 - 6.2006
Area:928 m2
Built Up Area:366 m2


The Ginzan Onsen Fujiya building is a four-storey hotel in the bottom of a valley in one of Japan's snowiest regions. The project was essentially a renovation of an existing building. The most important part of the project was renewal of the building's facade using the same century-old wood as the original hotel, which also has wooden interiors. The space was reorganised with the inclusion of a central atrium that becomes the key point for distribution and is surrounded by a thin screen of 4 milimetre wide bamboo strips (sumushiko). This bamboo coating, alternating with masonry load-bearing structures, acts as a filter between outside and inside and lets a delicate, diffuse light into the building.
A semi-transparent glass known as dalle de verre, already in use in medieval times, is the only translucent connecting inside with outside.
The hotel interior has a calm, relaxing atmosphere that makes a stay in this hotel an unique sensorial experience. The building evolved directly out of the Ginzan Bath House Kuma designed a few years earlier in the same area.
Alini Luigi: Kengo Kuma. Opere e progetti, Mondadori Electa, Milan 2005, p.213
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