Capsule Hotel in Kyoto
Erected on a six-metre-wide city-centre site, this capsule hotel sets new standards for what is a typically Japanese form of accommodation. The name, “9h Hotel”, indicates the recommended duration of stay, namely nine hours: seven for sleep and an hour each for showering and grooming. The 1.20 × 2.34 m plastic sleeping capsules are no larger than standard cells of this kind, but here the design is both functional and aesthetic. Colour is used as a means of spatial differentiation – from the gleaming white entrance and lounge to the grey tones of the toilets and the black corridors in the sleeping areas. As a place of repose, the building is introverted: apart from the glazed entrance, there are no windows.
