Game On: former Nintendo HQ to become boutique hotel
Back in 1933, when game developer Nintendo made Japanese playing cards, this beautiful brick building in Kyoto was their first headquarters but on April 1st, this unique location will open as Marufukuro Hotel.
Transformed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who has renovated and extended the old structure, converting it into an 18-room hotel including a restaurant, bar, spa and gym.
GALLERY
Located in the Kagiyacho neighbourhood, just north of Kyoto railway station, the building has been unoccupied ever since Nintendo vacated it. The building’s exterior has remained largely unchanged, retaining elements such as old Yamauchi Nintendo entrance plaques and window grilles patterned with details from the old playing cards.
Ando’s task was to reimagine the building’s interior but incorporate many of its original 1930s details, which include decorative tiling and art-deco lighting fixtures.
For the annex, the architect has adopted a more modern approach with floor-to-ceiling windows and elements in raw concrete, the material he is famous for.
Guests can choose to stay in either the old or new parts of the building, in rooms ranging in size between 33 and 79 square metres.
Ando is among Japan’s most prolific architects. Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1995, his best-known projects include Church of the Light and Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum.
Images by Marufukuro Hotel via Dezeen
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