Modern history

It wasn’t so long ago that an empty building in the middle of Tokyo was fit for one thing only: demolition. That was also set to be the fate of the Dai-ichi Bank building in Kabutocho, an overlooked neighbourhood not far from the Imperial Palace. The structure, which dates back to 1923, had even been stripped in preparation for its demise. But then developers Heiwa Real Estate, who also own the Tokyo Stock Exchange next door, had a change of heart and hired designers and founds tenants to transform the stately old gent into a new development called K5. All in just 14 months.

“At the beginning, this project was going to be just a hotel,” says Akihito Takano from Heiwa Real Estate. “But as it went on, we came up with the idea of a ‘micro complex’.” So, in addition to the 20-room hotel, there’s also a café, restaurant, library bar and basement beer bar, each one run by a leader in their field.

The core production team is a young trio – Takahiro Honma, Akihiro Matsui and Yuta Oka – who have come together to create a new firm called Ferment. They worked with Tokyo design entrepreneur Teruo Kurosaki, who called on his old acquaintances, Stockholm architecture firm Claesson Koivisto Rune, to tackle the building. “It’s rare to find these old classical-style buildings in Tokyo,” says the company’s co-founder Eero Koivisto. “It wouldn’t be unusual in Stockholm or London but this is one of the few buildings that survived the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 firebombing.”

“Nobody had really noticed the building or thought of doing anything with it,” says Ola Rune, Koivisto’s colleague. “You have a highway on one side and the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the other.” But when Koivisto, Rune and Mårten Claesson visited, they could immediately see the potential. “We could see that it was beautifully proportioned,” says Claesson. “Very Western neo classical but also super Japanese in its detailing – or rather lack of detailing.” The guest rooms are large by Tokyo standards and make full use of the building’s big windows. There are traces of the old building throughout: the original oak parquet floor survives in the restaurant and the corridors are preserved in a state of pleasing imperfection – even the old builders’ marks have been kept for posterity. To complement the original features, the architects designed 20 new pieces for the hotel – from the 7 metre-long oak table for the restaurant to a pencil that’s made in Japan. They worked with Japanese company Time & Style on the furniture and young carpentry firm adx lined the bedroom and corridor walls with cedar veneer.

The interior is an imaginative mix with plenty of craftsmanship: hand-dyed curtains, custom-crafted floor tiles in a blue hue inspired by Kyoto’s Katsura Imperial Villa and unlacquered copper on the elevator walls, which will acquire a patina over time.“Hotel rooms tend to be soulless and standardised,” says Claesson. “We’ve tried to avoid that: this is more like a real home that has been formed over years.”

The restaurant, Caveman, is a spin-off of the much-admired Scandi-Japanese restaurant Kabi in Meguro blending influences from Japan, France and Denmark. Top marks go to the morning brunch, which includes fresh bread from Tokyo bakery Vaner, a selection of homemade jams, smoked butter, house pancetta and fluffy egg soufflés. Dinner at Caveman is also very popular.

Elsewhere, a café is run by Meguro roasters Switch Coffee, whose owner Masahiro Onishi is an old friend of the Kabi crew. “I first heard about this project in April last year when Shohei [Yasuda] dropped into my coffee shop and told me that he was opening in a new location and asked if I could join in,” says Onishi. “And here I am.” The basement is a first taproom for New York’s Brooklyn Brewery. A snug cocktail bar and library is the work of seasoned bartender Soran Nomura and Kai Tanaka, who owns another popular Tokyo spot called The Open Book. Inspired by Eiichi Shibusawa, who founded the Tokyo Stock Exchange, this bar, Ao, has an erudite book collection and serves tea during the day. “Not just green tea either,” says Nomura. “Japanese black teas and other teas from Taiwan, Vietnam and around Asia.” At night the menu moves on to cocktails. “I’m thinking about an oolong-tea-infused gin and tonic,” he says.

While Kabutocho has many appealing qualities, green space isn’t one of them. The hotel compensates with an abundance of potted plants, spectacular specimens sourced by Yardworks, a nursery founded by Kei Amano in Yamanashi. “I can’t think of another hotel with trees in the bedrooms,” says Rune. Heiwa Real Estate isn’t stopping with K5. It has a number of properties nearby and plans to continue working on this historic area’s revitalisation.“It’s great to see another part of Tokyo,” says Rune. “Whenever we come here we’re in Roppongi or Aoyama. But while doing this project I’ve been staying here. For me it’s a new Tokyo – and I love that.”
k5-tokyo.com