DESIGN


Japanese-born designers, we spent three years re-educating ourselves about Japanese culture by researching this city’s essence,” he recalls. “There’s a theatricality to Kyoto, a moodiness and mystery that pervades the streets and begs you to explore its spaces. So we’ve taken that mystique and conceived a modern hotel that is much darker than you would expect, where spaces don’t reveal themselves in their entirety until you turn a corner or open a door.”


Making an entrance A passageway, designed to make visitors feel as though they’re entering a local home’s courtyard, leads directly from guestroom elevators to The Ritz-Carlton Spa, on the lower basement level. Since the same floor is home to events spaces and a wedding chapel, Remedios advised against shared access. “We couldn’t have people in tuxedos and others in robes using the same corridor,” he explains. “The answer was to divide the entryway in two by having a screen wall touch the floor but not the ceiling. There’s a little bit of theatre too because you can sense others behind the washi paper-patterned screen although you can’t see them.” From spa reception, the intent is


to evoke an intimate rock garden. So, uplighters graze split-face dune granite walls while basalt and limestone combine to resemble stepping-stones on the floor. Mellow lighting throughout, provided


58 spabusiness.com issue 2 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015


Granite, basalt and limestone have been used in the spa reception in homage to Japanese rock gardens


Spa manager Masako Kasahara says guests’ reaction to the spa is ‘wow’


either by low lanterns or uplighters, has been arranged with the movement of mist in mind. Still, the design team had to tread a fine line between references that were too naturalistic (“it’s not a stage set,” Remedios points out) while avoiding hard- edged materials. The hotel’s operational team tempered some of the studio’s initial ideas; it would have preferred coarser stone paving for the reception’s floor but The Ritz-Carlton felt a smoother option was needed for safety reasons. The garden theme continues through to the stunning pool, complete with


steamroom, sauna, showers and poolside loungers. Remedios felt strongly that a straightforward lap pool would not befit this high-end urban resort so he spent months convincing architects and engineers that a spacious area fit for relaxation was required. This meant campaigning for a Zen rock garden and three-storey waterfall that would cascade down to the hotel’s lowest floor. Having secured this exterior feature, Remedios then asked the team to engineer a lifting system for the windows so they could retract upwards in temperate weather to remove the boundary between internal and external landscapes. “As the pool has an infinity edge, the water seems connected to the rocks outside, akin to a secret grotto,” says Remedios. “In choosing the rough stone wall, we followed the wabi-sabi aesthetic, finding beauty in the imperfection of nature.” Spa manager Masako Kasahara agrees the 20m pool is a big draw: “The first reaction of customers is ‘wow.’ You never feel as though you’re in a basement when the sunlight streams in and you can watch the sunset. The pool itself is an art piece, its pattern designed by a local Kyoto artist and created in Bisazza mosaics.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108