Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2025
Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki Private Hotels
by Miki Orihara
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 15,684
- Verification code AFD7268221 · Verify this award
About Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki Private Hotels
Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki is a hotel interior located on Miyagawa-suji, a street in Kyoto that keeps a traditional streetscape. The design follows the strict local rules on building colors, shapes and styles. The lighting plan leads guests from dim light at the entrance to brighter rooms, and indirect lighting reveals the texture of the walls. Washi paper made with a local paper artist is used in several ways, including kakishibu treatment, koyori twisting and fukuro-bari layering. The aim is a calm and warm space for comfortable stays.
Within the evolving discourse of contemporary hospitality design, Miki Orihara's Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki Private Hotels emerges as a contemplative meditation on the intersection of traditional bathing culture and modern spatial practice. The work demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how architectural volumes can choreograph human experience, deploying a sunken soaking pool as both functional amenity and phenomenological anchor that grounds visitors within a carefully orchestrated sensory environment. The designer's chromatic restraint—a palette of weathered mineral tones punctuated by strategic warm interventions—suggests deep engagement with principles of material honesty and atmospheric modulation that characterize the finest examples of contemporary regional modernism. Technical accomplishment manifests through the masterful handling of lighting, where wall-mounted sconces create rhythmic vertical incidents against textured surfaces, establishing a crepuscular intimacy that transforms utilitarian bathing into ritualized experience. The vertical organization of space, with its open stair ascending into shadow and double-height volume creating aspiration without overwhelming intimacy, reveals sophisticated spatial intelligence that balances monumental gesture with domestic scale. Material relationships demonstrate particular refinement: the dialogue between rough lime-washed surfaces and smooth water, between industrial metal and organic timber, between geological permanence and ephemeral light reflections. Thematic resonance extends beyond mere aesthetic achievement to engage enduring questions of dwelling, restoration, and the sacred nature of transitional spaces—those thresholds between public and private, between activity and repose, between the mundane and the transcendent. The composition invites consideration of how contemporary design might honor inherited wisdom regarding the restorative power of water and warmth while speaking an authentically modern formal language, perhaps prompting viewers to reflect upon their own relationship to spaces of sanctuary and renewal.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This facility is located on Miyagawa-suji and features a design that emphasizes harmony with its surroundings. The lighting plan makes full use of materials and cooperation with a local washi paper artist has been designed with local production for local consumption in mind. Kakishibu washi paper and the koyori technique are used to add shading, aiming to create a facility with concern and warmth in the traditional streetscape.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Although Japanese paper is used extensively, it is expressed in a variety of ways. Japanese paper mixed with clay and colored Japanese paper plus plastering, kakishibu, which has been used since ancient times for its antiseptic and water-repellent properties koyori, in which Japanese paper is picked up and twisted by hand fukuro-bari, in which the surface is covered to seal the cavity, and furthermore, lighting is installed in the cavity.
- Tags
- Interior Design, Hotel Luxury, Living space, Guesthouse, Asia , Japan
- Production Technology
- Kyoto has strict regulations in place to protect its traditional landscape, and the colors, shapes and designs of buildings must conform to a prescribed style. We have actively worked to comply with these regulations, incorporating external lighting into the interior of the first floor without any sense of incongruity, and creating a “stillness” and “movement” atmosphere on the second floor, created by Kyoto artisans.
- Design Challenge
- While overcoming the strict landscape regulations, how can we create a new style without destroying the good image that many people have of Kyoto's machiya? We also carefully considered what kind of measures would be needed to ensure that guests would be comfortable in the hot summers and cold winters.
- Project Duration
- 605-0801 4-297-10 Miyagawasuji Higashiyama-ku Kyoto city
Completed on October 26, 2023. - Operation Flow
- Design plays an important role in shaping cities. I also think it has a role to play in passing on culture to the next generation. I hope this book will be a chance for many people to learn about the importance of design.
- Research
- We held discussions with the Japanese paper artists about colors and construction methods, and solved the problem in a variety of ways. We also reread works such as Junichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows, E. Oryong's The Shrinking Japanese Mind and Bruno Taut's Nippon and summarized our way of thinking.
- Inspiration
- The space has been created to reflect the Japanese aesthetics of drawing in, with the intention of capturing the atmosphere of Miyagawa-cho, Kyoto, inside the room. To change from the dim light upon arrival at the inn to the brightness of the interior, the lighting is based on Junichiro Tanizaki's In ei Raisan. In the guest rooms, indirect lighting is used to accentuate the texture of the walls, and the materials and lighting are carefully selected.
- Image Credits
- Main Image / Toshihide Kajiwara
Image #1 / Toshihide Kajiwara
Image #2 / Toshihide Kajiwara
Image #3 / Toshihide Kajiwara
Image #4 / Toshihide Kajiwara
Colors of Rinn Kyoto Miyagawasuji Hitotose Aki Private Hotels
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Award-Winning Hospitality Interior Design Services
We create emotionally resonant commercial spaces that honor cultural heritage while meeting modern operational needs. Our expertise spans hotels, restaurants, and retail environments, where we blend traditional Japanese aesthetics with contemporary functionality.
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