At the project site, there once stood a business hotel that had been operating for over 30 years since 1986. With 144 guest rooms and a primary clientele of school-trip students and business travelers, it was a typical business hotel. We carried out a major renovation to rebrand the property into Fauchon Hotel Kyoto - introduced to Japan for the first time through this project and the second Fauchon hotel in the world. In order to create a setting worthy of the brand, we reduced the number of rooms and expanded each room’s size, completing a large-scale refurbishment that transformed the hotel into 59 spacious guest rooms.

Paris, France - Fauchon’s birthplace - and Kyoto, Japan, an ancient capital with a long, uninterrupted cultural history, share many common threads. One example is the parallel between France’s salon-de-thé culture and Japan’s tea ceremony tradition. We found shared essence here, and expressed it at the front space by placing a hospitality-styled guest reception with a garden and a raised-floor “Ryurei” tea table on the second floor. This design welcomes both domestic and international guests.

From the moment guests step inside, the space allows them to experience Fauchon’s unique Paris worldview while enjoying design points inspired by the marriage of Paris and Kyoto. With bamboo and cherry blossoms placed throughout as design motifs and Kyoto’s cultural craft expressed through Nishijin Weave fabrics, we succeeded in completing a hotel that presents the brand’s identity harmonized with Kyoto’s essence.