Cute, cozy and convenient, the capsule hotel is a quintessentially Japanese experience. Regrettably until now, sleeping pods don’t typically epitomise chic. Enter 9h, so called for the average amount of time visitors usually spend in a pod hotel. The work of award-winning product designer Fumie Shibata, 9h’s sleeping pods draw on the humble honeybee for inspiration with hive-like arrangements of white pods set in a black wall.
“I used black and white because this hotel is about night and morning,” says Shibata. The themed is continued inside the rooms, with white towels and toiletries and black pyjama and slipper sets. With 55 locations planned over the next eight years, a monochrome 9h hotel might well be coming to a town near you.
“I want to export this idea abroad,” says CEO Keisuke Yui. “Japanese hospitality is highly appreciated elsewhere, so we’re looking at opening in London, Heathrow and near big train stations. If someone in the world appreciates this idea, I want to make it for them.”
9H Pod Hotel
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