Hotel KOO is a collection of seven rehabilitated machiya’s (traditional Japanese townhouses) refurbished with modern furnishings, some as private villas and others with two or three separate guest bedrooms creating 13 units in total. Japanese machiya’s are small – typically around 1,000 sq. ft – and split into two levels. Adherence to key features such as entrance foyer (remove shoes please) and miniature interior garden make it exceedingly challenging to create space so naturally design ingenuity tends to focus on details like materials selection and construction quality often using traditional methods and uniquely Japanese aesthetics. KOO is indeed a masterclass on exceptionally high quality traditional construction and meticulous variation of Japanese-Nordic furnishings in which no two units are alike in their layout and FF&E.
As you walk up to each machiya, what greets you is just picture perfect, overly flawless perhaps, facade. Contrasted colors of Japanese cypress doors and shutters layered against slate wall and roof tiles, perfectly situated waif tree to one side nestled on stone and pebble garden. As you enter, the tyranny of confined space is undone by impossibly light Japanese construction at its finest. Washi-paper sliding doors gently glide at the flick of fingertips and occasional hand-made glass doors clink and clank from its delicately thin construction.
As I entered Chaya (a split-level private villa configuration), there it was Finn Juhl Pelican Chair, arguably the most avant garde product of the designer perching on the living room tatami floor. Genuinely surprising was how the elaborate and voluminous Pelican chair harmoniously exists in this confined and delicate setting. It wasn’t the contrast that was strangely pleasing, indeed it was how the Japanese and Finnish dimensions naturally fit.
Tyranny of confined space is undone by impossibly light Japanese construction at its finest. Washi-paper sliding doors gently glide at the flick of fingertips and hand-made glass doors clink and clank from its delicately thin construction.
These scattered accommodation style takes its cue from ‘Albergo Diffuso’ in Italy. Albergo Diffuso originates from Italy where visionary hoteliers with strong sense of adventure and passion for history returned to hollowing out historic towns to develop unusual hotels. Albergo Diffuso as the name literally suggest are ‘diffused, scattered hotel rooms’ throughout a small town. Central functions and facilities like reception and F&B are housed in one of the larger units. Some of the most recognised Albergo Diffusos are Sextantio in Santo Stefano di Sessanio in Abruzzo and Sextantio le Grotte Della Civita in Matera.
Ootsu is the seat of Shiga Prefecture – not in Kyoto Prefecture but stones throw from it across the administrative border and one can be carried swiftly in a local train from Kyoto Station in less than ten minutes. It’s a small and ageing city (population is still respectable 340k) hollowed out by younger generation seeking careers elsewhere. It is also a bedroom community of sorts serving the economy of Kyoto. KOO is roughly ten minute walk from Ootsu Station.
Hotel KOO Ootsu
1 Chome-2-6 Central, Otsu, Shiga 520-0043, Japan
Per-person rate at Ohmiya (Main townhouse containing three-units) starts Y20,000
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