OHArchitecture Designs Kagan Hotel for Artist Residency Program

Off the beaten path, in the wholesale food district of Kyoto, Japan, the five-story Kagan Hotel is offering a new type of mixed-use space. The core concept is a residency program for up to 20 young artists on two floors, supported by two floors of hotel rooms. OHArchitecture was tasked with fitting an array of spaces, from a basement art studio to five luxury guest suites on the top level, into a concrete former produce warehouse. “It was a cold building,” OH principal Tatsuya Horii recalls. “It took a lot of work to make it feel warm.” Over time, the spare white interiors, replete with industrial elements left exposed, will be filled in with the output of the resident artists. “We kept the environment simple and clean so their work would stand out,” co-principal Kosuke Okuda adds. Though the hotel portion of the project doesn’t open until the fall, the first resident artists, including painters, a calligrapher, and photographer Genki Sato, whose cloudlike installation appears in the gallery, are already at work making themselves at home.

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