Green Surprise

The Shiroiya Hotel in the Middle of Maebashi, Japan

Shiroiya Hotel aims to stimulate individual creativity through art, architecture, design, food, nature, and city experience. As a remarkable urban intervention, it offers a dynamic gallery of site-specific and curated art.

Sou Fujimoto is the architectural mind behind the Shiroiya Hotel, which began with the ambition to revitalize central Maebashi. It occupies the grounds of the former Shiroiya Ryokan, an inn that closed permanently after hosting guests for over 300 years. Maebashi is a former silk manufacturing city that greatly contributed to Japan’s modernization. 

In an interview, Fujimoto stated: “I started to think about the possibility of changing this ordinary-looking building by entirely removing the floor space and leaving the beams and pillars exposed. By doing this, we would be creating a spacious, four-story atrium that could be used as a hotel lobby, but also as a place where people would gather together in Maebashi. [...] It would be a place that catches people by surprise but also a place that’s part of the city. [...] This was the idea I had in mind, and I thought it was quite interesting.”

The project soon became an urban development, and an environment proposal, manifested in a riverbank-like building. The hotel features two buildings: the “Heritage Tower,” a boldly renovated building occupying the former Shiroiya Ryokan, which houses the boldly designed atrium, and the “Green Tower,” a new building inspired by the former river bank of Tonegawa. The two towers combined act as a “living room” of the city, a place where local residents and travelers gather and interact in a reenactment of Maebashi City’s new slogan for the future, “Where Good Things Grow.” 
To complete this image of the hotel, Fujimoto guided the overall design and interior while further collaborating with various designers and artists.

Visitors and guests can enjoy original architecture and art throughout the hotel. The exterior of the hotel facing Route 50 is adorned with Lawrence Weiner’s distinct design. The reception desk welcomes guests with a large photograph from Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Seascapes” collection.

The atrium of the four-story Heritage Tower houses numerous artworks, including the fantastical “Lighting Pipes” by Leandro Erlich, who is known for his permanent work at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. At the top of the Green Tower, hotel guests can enjoy artwork by internationally acclaimed artist, Tatsuo Miyajima. As if visiting a museum, each guest room at both towers exhibits unique artwork of local Gunma Prefecture-based and international artists, providing guests with an extraordinary art experience upon every visit.

The Heritage Tower boasts four exclusive rooms designed by four great creative minds: Great Britain’s world-renowned designer Jasper Morrison, Italy’s master of architecture Michele De Lucchi, Argentina’s famous conceptual artist Leandro Erlich, and Sou Fujimoto. The artists designed each room’s installation, creating a one-of-a-kind space that is unique to this hotel. The remaining rooms are designed for guests to enjoy gentle colors and subtle attention to materials and details. The Green Tower’s guest rooms include a balcony from which guests can feel a sense of unity with the greenery surrounding the tower. 

In addition, the hotel has two dining spaces: “the Restaurant,” a Joshu (the name formerly used for the wide Gunma Prefecture area) cuisine restaurant, supervised by 2-Michelin- star chef-owner, Hiroyasu Kawate, and “the Lounge,” an all-day diner. Both restaurants offer a variety of surprising culinary experiences that will surely please guests.—