This book features the design details of the largest and most innovative examples from such cutting-edge firms as Archi-Tectonics, ARO, Escher GuneWardena, and Office dA, among others. Its pages offer ...
An international dream team of designers shapes a modern collaborative vision and traditional Japanese references into The Peninsula Tokyo.
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You don't have to live in the transparent architecture of Itsuko Hasegawa or wear Rei Kawakubo to know that Tokyo is a vortex point of contemporary culture. Its influences are as close as the beat of Gwen Stefani and her Harajuku Girls (named for the capital's street chic shopping district) and the inescapable graphics of anime. But there's been one obvious gap in Tokyo's trendsetting pedigree: the Japanese capital hadn't seen a new, stand-alone five-star hotel for more than a decade. Last September's opening of The Peninsula Tokyo rectified that lapse with a fashion-forward fusion of international modernism and Japanese tradition-and, in the process, leveraged design collaboration into a new kind of brand experience.
Nearly a decade in the planning, this 314-room, ultra-luxury debutante is more than The Peninsula Hotels' eighth flag (a ninth opens next year in Shanghai) or its premier offering in Japan. As the group's first hotel to come on line since 2001, it is the newest face of the brand. The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd., Peninsula's parent company, and its partner in the project, Mitsubishi Estate Co., had to make sure it had the right look for the right market. They brought together an international A-list of design specialists-renowned architect Kazukiyo Sato, red-hot interior design firms HashimotoYukio Design Studio, Inc., Yabu Pushelberg, Chhada Siembieda Leung Ltd., Tiger Bay Enterprises, Brennan Beer Gorman Monk/Interiors, lighting expert Tino Kwan Lighting Consultants and spa star ESPA and commissioned them to deliver differentiated experiences that would coalesce into an enhanced and expanded brand cache.
Egos got checked at the door as the world-famous design experts started work. Although each was expected to apply the firm's signature style to a specific aspect of the hotel, all understood that the sum had to be greater than the parts. The list of rules was short but precise: the overall effect had to be modern, it had to incorporate an authentic sense of Japanese culture and it had to fit Peninsula's ultra-luxury design standards.
What Modern Means in Tokyo
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