curved twin volumes shape the risonare shimonoseki hotel along japan’s kanmon strait

RISONARE SHIMONOSEKI BY NIHON SEKKEI AND KLEIN DYTHAM

RISONARE Shimonoseki by Hoshino Resorts is a 187-room waterfront hotel located in the Arcaport–Karato district of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, overlooking the Kanmon Strait. Conceived as a ‘designer hotel on the strait,’ the project is the result of a close collaboration between Nihon Sekkei and Klein Dytham Architecture, with architecture and interior design developed in parallel to create a destination embedded within the daily life, movement, and cultural geography of Shimonoseki’s waterfront.

According to Nihon Sekkei, the form of the building was derived from a careful interpretation of the coastal landscape of Shimonoseki. Curved lines evocative of ocean currents are embedded in the infrastructure, topography, and even the harbor edges, transforming the characteristics of the landscape into architectural form.

The hotel is embedded within one of the most active tourism zones in the city, surrounded by Karato Market, Akama Shrine, and Kaikyokan Aquarium, and shaped by a waterfront that is constantly in use. The hotel forms part of a larger, long-term redevelopment strategy for the area, aiming to reconnect the city with its maritime edge. Facing a strait defined by cargo ships, ferries, and shifting weather conditions, the hotel offers a view of a living landscape.

all images by Nacása & Partners, unless stated otherwise

interpreting the landscape indoors

Klein Dytham Architecture translates the ecology, colors, and cultural identity of the strait into spatial experiences. Elements such as waves, ships, and Shimonoseki’s famous fugu (pufferfish) are abstracted into contemporary forms, textures, and graphic expressions.

Experiencing the hotel reveals how these ideas become reality through movement. Upon arrival, the spatial logic unfolds as a series of overlapping scenes. A warm indoor pool appears through a single glass partition, filled with children at play. Straight ahead, a garden surfaces with sand, hosting trampolines alongside a standalone sauna. Beyond this, the Kanmon Strait opens up, with cargo ships passing steadily through the narrow channel and the mountainous outline of Mojiko visible in the distance.

Klein Dytham Architecture describes this layered composition of play, rest, and landscape as an attempt to allow all elements to come together. Rejecting rigid binaries between adult and child, leisure and observation, interior and exterior, the team conceives the interior as a continuous field of overlapping experiences. Throughout the stay, the strait remains visually present. Ships move slowly across the water, sometimes disappearing behind architectural curves, sometimes framed by openings in the building.

the hotel’s curved base extends along the waterfront

Ocean-facing rooms, dining, and sustainable systems

This logic continues into the guest rooms, all of which face the water. The hotel offers nine ocean-view categories, including Superior, Deluxe Quad, and Straits Cabana Suite. According to the designers, the Straits Cabana Suite most fully embodies the concept of the project, featuring sand laid directly within the room itself.

Dining follows a similar principle. At the restaurant OTTO SETTE SHIMONOSEKI, guests eat against the backdrop of Mojiko’s illuminated nightscape while ships continue to pass across the water. The menu foregrounds regional ingredients, with a strong emphasis on Shimonoseki’s renowned fugu, extending the hotel’s engagement with place from spatial experience into gastronomy.

The project approaches architecture, interiors, and landscape as a single, continuous spatial system. This continuity extends to its environmental strategies. The hotel achieves a reported 53% reduction in energy use and becomes the first hotel in Japan to obtain both ZEB Ready certification and CASBEE S Rank simultaneously. Systems such as seawater utilization and waste-heat recovery are integrated as part of the broader narrative of the project about environmental awareness and long-term sustainability.

RISONARE Shimonoseki’s twin volumes sit directly along the Kanmon Strait

located within an urban and maritime ecosystem in japan

RISONARE is Hoshino Resorts’ design-led resort brand, focusing on immersive, location-specific experiences. Each property is conceived as a response to its immediate environment, with architecture, programming, and spatial narratives shaped by local climate, culture, and seasonal rhythms. In Shimonoseki, this philosophy manifests through maritime references, regionally rooted cuisine, and spaces that encourage slow observation rather than spectacle.

Hoshino Resorts has entered into a partnership agreement with the City of Shimonoseki and aims to revitalize the area. This hotel represents the first phase of a long-term waterfront redevelopment plan. Historically, the city has attracted large numbers of day-trippers from Fukuoka and Hiroshima yet has lacked high-quality accommodation options. In this context, RISONARE Shimonoseki adds infrastructure to the tourism ecosystem of the city. Further redevelopment of nearby areas, including Karato Market, is already planned.

the hotel’s sail-like upper volumes curve toward the strait | image by Masaki Hamada/ Kawasumi・Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office