B3 Designers

This pop-up hotel in Tokyo is based on the phenomenon of the Japanese love hotel. Designed by eight Japanese and eight Dutch designers, each room is a unique installation which visitors can actually pay to stay in. Each designer has responded to the theme to create a room for every mood!

The pop-up hotel, initiated by Amsterdams’ Lloyd hotel,  celebrates 400 years of trade and cultural relations between Japan and the Netherlands, using theme ‘still in Llove’ as it’s driver. The entrance area and cafe see the two cultures collide in bold graphic wall coverings including images of windmills, mount fuji and historical figures who symbolise love, designed by Thonik.

Highlights of the hotel include this ‘clockwork’ room by designer, Joe Nagasaka. The ricepaper from the traditional screens was removed leaving just the frames, adding to the mechanical aesthetic and the bed is mounted on a rotating disk, to be turned at the occupants will.

Another favourite of mine, room no. 304 by Riyuji Nakamara features a ‘water line’ out of fishing line creating the feeling of being underwater throughout the room, especially when lying on the bed as plastic toys float above you.

Photographs by Takumi Ota

The brief has inspired some exciting responses from the designers. Other rooms popular with visitors include a pebble filled room with trees in place of furniture by Yuko Nagayama and a pink and white room with the theme of fertility by Scholten&Baijings.

Image via Designboom