There are two simple themes at Tokyo’s new Hamacho Hotel: handcrafted and green. The façade of the 15-storey complex, home to 150 guestrooms and 108 apartments, ticks one of these boxes, with green foliage packed onto every balcony.
And the handcrafted element? The hotel, which has been designed by local outfits UDS (also behind Claska, Tokyo’s original design hotel) and The Range Design INC, features clean-lined guestrooms layered in teak and walnut and decorated with locally crafted accessories like coppertone pendant lights by Tokyo-based studio Di Classe; Ingegerd Raman ceramic cups made in Arita and leather stationary boxes produced by the UDS brand su+ and crafted by local artisans.
A bean-to-bar chocolate shop called Nel Craft Chocolate Tokyo, is a contemporary, wood-filled space with cocoa bean-inspired white lamps (made using a special mix of washi paper and cocoa bean shells) above the counter, while the main restaurant Hamacho Dining and Bar Session, is produced by The Blue Note Tokyo.
The highlight though is Tokyo Craft Room, a suite and exhibition space, creatively directed by designer Teruhiro Yanagihara where guests can stay overnight or simply visit if it’s vacant. The opening exhibition showcases an ethereal cabinet made from light sugi cedar wood and near-translucent washi paper, a collaboration between Japanese woodwork studio Soma and Amsterdam-based design studio De Intuïtiefabriek. §
