Inspiring 21st century take on traditional design in Japanese boutique hotel, latest in a stable of architecturally potent retreats designed by Pritzker laureates
- The look and ambience of three Shishi-Iwa houses stem partly from research into the impact of nature and design on emotions and well-being
- The boutique hotels in a Japanese mountain town, designed by two Pritzker Prize-winning architects, are stylishly minimal and pleasingly unplugged
When translating culturally bound words, Japanologist Philip Gabriel once explained, three choices exist: leave them as they are, add simple explanations or find rough equivalents.
However, the American translator of bestselling Japanese novelists acknowledges that vocabulary covering Japanese houses is tricky. Engawa, in particular, is problematic, he says, because it refers to a type of veranda – but not as we know it.
The challenge for translators has just become tougher.
In leafy Karuizawa, in Nagano prefecture, architect Ryue Nishizawa has given new expression to the nostalgic feature, in a hotel – his first.
The reimagined engawa is a multifunctional feature attached to the third Shishi-Iwa House (SSH) to be built in this genteel mountain town just over an hour from Tokyo by train.
A visual extension of the guest rooms and a covered outdoor walkway, the engawa is an indispensable link connecting the small hotel’s two-storey pavilions. But it is also an apt metaphor, I realise while strolling its length, for engagement – with the environment, other people, even oneself.
