2015 National Architecture Awards: International Award

Jury citation

Aman, Tokyo is a luxury hotel that occupies the top six floors of the Otemachi Tower, a thirty-eight-floor commercial office tower in central Tokyo. This project is an oasis of calm within a bustling metropolis. The array and sequence of interior spaces epitomize Kerry Hill’s perceptive and original reading of another culture’s architectural traditions. The design references traditional Japanese architecture through meticulous detail and accomplished spatial flow and volumetric control. The highlight is “The Inner Garden,” the lobby lounge, which has a six-storey-high washi paper lantern and skylight as its focus above, while at floor level, there is what appears to be a contemporary Japanese garden but is in fact a spectacular seasonal ikebana arrangement. All the public spaces are defined by stone, paper, water and landscape in contrast to the guestrooms, where Japanese sen timber detail, shoji -style screens and large stone soaking tubs suggest the intimate and sensory small scale of traditional Japanese domestic architecture. This is a masterful work, another example of Kerry Hill’s internationally acclaimed practice of designing exquisite spaces for travel and escape.

Read the project review by Erwin Viray from Architecture Australia Sept/Oct 2015.