Japanese design firm Studio Aluc has successfully transformed a 100-year-old traditional townhouse into a luxury short-stay hotel in Kyoto, deliberately preserving traces of past craftsmanship throughout the renovation process. The project, named Nazuna Kyoto Higashihonganji, represents a thoughtful approach to regenerative design that honors the building's historical significance while meeting modern hospitality needs.
The 600-square-meter property sits prominently in front of the Higashi Honganji Temple in central Kyoto, offering seven guest rooms alongside communal spaces including a dining room and separate lounge area on the ground floor. Studio Aluc's renovation of the century-old machiya, a traditional Japanese townhouse style, focused on exposing and celebrating the building's original timber framework, earthen walls, and exterior roof boards rather than concealing them.
"We deliberately retained traces of past craftsmanship, treating them not as flaws but as elements that reveal the quiet beauty and narrative depth of the building," explained Studio Aluc founders Jun Kameda and Hirona Sasaki. This philosophy guided their approach to combining traditional architectural features with contemporary design elements throughout the property.
The design team reinterpreted the authentic Japanese ryokan experience by incorporating hallmark features typical of traditional inn accommodation. These include sliding doors crafted from washi paper, futon furnishings, and tatami-mat flooring, all combined with natural materials such as wooden furniture, clay walls, and handcrafted paper light fixtures to establish a muted color scheme dominated by earthy tones.
Central to the hotel's design philosophy is the embrace of what Studio Aluc describes as the "beauty of shadows," a traditional Japanese aesthetic that experiments with the interplay of natural light and shadows to add depth and texture to interior spaces. "Inspired by this philosophy, the project incorporates earthen walls, shoji screens, and wooden lattices, which naturally create layered shadows and a tranquil atmosphere," Kameda and Sasaki noted.
Drawing inspiration from Japanese bathing culture, the designers made large bathing areas a defining feature of each guest room. The ground-floor suites feature stone-pressed open-air bathtubs, while upper-floor rooms showcase spa-like bathtubs crafted from hinoki cypress wood. This approach represents a significant departure from conventional hotel design.
"A key contemporary feature we introduced is the integration of the living and bathing areas into a single continuous space," the studio founders explained. "While modern Japanese homes typically separate bathrooms, at Nazuna Kyoto Higashihonganji we designed the bedroom and bathing areas to merge into one, creating a distinctive openness that feels removed from everyday life."
To enhance the communal areas, Studio Aluc removed walls and introduced small tsuboniwa courtyard gardens, a type of miniature Japanese garden. These intimate outdoor spaces are framed by expansive glass panels designed to maximize natural light flow throughout the interior spaces, addressing a common challenge with traditional machiya architecture.
"The interiors of traditional machiya tend to be enclosed, so we designed the dining and lounge areas to be comfortable and spacious," said Sasaki and Kameda. "Although modest in scale, the presence of these courtyards – designed by contemporary landscape artists – subtly signals that the architecture exists in harmony with nature."
The project has gained recognition in the design community, with Studio Aluc being shortlisted in the hotel and short-stay interior category of this year's Dezeen Awards. The firm faces competition from other notable projects including LRNCE's restoration of a riad in Marrakesh and Dimore's transformation of La Dolce Vita Orient Express in Italy. Photography for the project was provided by Kenta Hasegawa, documenting the successful fusion of historical preservation with contemporary hospitality design.
