THE REIGN HOTEL KYOTO by TERUHIRO YANAGIHARA STUDIO

The Reign Hotel, designed and supervised by Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio, opened in Kyoto in 2021. For this hotel, they designed the lobby and restaurant on the ground floor and supervised the design of the guest rooms.

The Reign Hotel is named after the word 'reign' in reference to the change of the new Japanese era Reiwa. Copenhagen-based design agency All the Way to Paris has created a graphic design visualising rain, based on a play on the words reign and rain.

Yanagihara replied when we asked about the overall concept, "Many tourists coming to Kyoto are very busy and moving around. For this reason, first, we decided to focus on the time they spend in their rooms and the experience they get inside the hotel. We then planned the overall direction based on a colour scheme and materials that felt comfortable."

They also created a 40-seat cafe restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel, offering Scandinavian buffet-style food and service. He added, "We aimed to design that restaurant to be cosy and a place where people could spend a lot of time. Also, because of the sloping site, the restaurant floor was set 1200 mm lower than the reception area, and a glass wall separated the aisles and seating areas." By thoughtfully shifting the space up and down, the interior gives guests a spacious feeling, more than its actual size.

An art installed at the hotel entrance, by Kyoto-based artist Yuna Yagi.

Besides, Yanagihara featured a number of photographic works by artist Yuna Yagi as an essential key to representing the hotel's identity. "As many accomodations in Kyoto express tradition and history, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from them and inspire the locals here. So we commissioned Kyoto-based artist Yuna Yagi to take abstract photographs of Japanese nature for the hotel," Yanagihara explained. Her contemporary works of the landscape are displayed with internal lighting, like a lightbox, giving them a completely different look by day and night.

At the end of the interview, he said, 'The pandemic caused hardships. However, I was able to fully utilise the relationships I have built up with national and international creatives, such as Yagi-san, All the Way to Paris, textile manufacturer Kvadrat and furniture manufacturer Skagerak, and enjoy the whole development process."