an undulating hotel by sou fujimoto

The ‘Not a Hotel’ team teams up with Sou Fujimoto Architects to showcase the design of its new location on Okinawa’s Ishigaki Island. The hotel start-up describes itself as “not a Hotel but a life”, and proposes places that arise through Japan. This new location will introduce a retreat from the world, occupying a large and remote site along the southwest coast of the island.

The Hotel villa is designed as a low form recognizable both by its grassy and hilly terrain roof. With its circular footprint, the building has no front or back and thus opens wide to its natural surroundings in all directions with the nearly untouched forests framing the sparkling blue waters.

images courtesy Not a hotel | @notahotel_official

a villa surmounted by a meadow

The design team at Sou Fujimoto Architects dissolves the boundary between Ishigaki Island landscape and “Not a Hotel” interiors. This condition is achieved with the gently sloping green roof that dips down to ground level. Large openings allow access to the prairie roof from the interior, inviting the new landscape to become a prominent part of the space.

A popular vacation resort destination, the island is occupied by beach houses and a host of supporting businesses scattered across the wooded interior landscape. Even with this development context, the ‘Not a Hotel’ villa remains isolated in a site preserving 3,000 tsubo (over two acres) of nature.

inside ‘not a hotel’ ishigaki

Inside Sou Fujimoto’s Not a Hotel Ishigaki, a living space will open outwards with full-height glazing to panoramic sea views, while four bedrooms can accommodate up to ten people. Past the curved terrace from the living room, a twelve meter (forty foot) infinity pool seamlessly borders the edge of the circular slab and is joined by a fireplace and sauna.

The circular plan and bowl-shaped green roof recall Sou Fujimoto’s recent design in Hida, with similar features taking shape on a larger scale and in an urban context (see designboom cover here).

not a hotel: a waste-free vacation home

The Not a Hotel team markets its locations as vacation rental villas, rather than traditional hotel stays, noting that the average second-home owner spends twenty days a year in their vacation home. To minimize waste, Not a Hotel villas are designed to be shared among members, like a timeshare. Watch the detailed video of Not a Hotel here. Not a Hotel Ishigaki is expected to start selling in May 2023.

project info:

Project title: Not an Ishigaki hotel

Architecture: Sou Fujimoto | @sou_fujimoto

client: not a hotel | @notahotel_official

location: Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

status: expected to start selling Not a Hotel ishigaki May 2023