Claska Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

The Claska is a recent hotel renovation project on Meguro-dori that was completed in September 2003 and is Tokyo’s first boutique hotel. There are only 36 rooms, nine of which are fully serviced and 27 rented to monthly boarders. The eight floor hotel was initially a business hotel called Hotel New Meguro, which first opened in 1967 and saw business right through the height of the expansion of the Japanese economy. This was closed in the early 1990s. At the time, the hotel was one of the most luxurious in Tokyo catering for businessmen.

The renovation project was started by Iku Hirose of Urban Design Systems, who fell in love with the space for its residual 1960s impression and a previously unexploited space. Meguro-dori used to be a street reserved just for shops and businesses but now the Claska has introduced a new place to relax and be seen with its ‘Lobby lounge’. Tadahiro Nakamura, marketing manager of the hotel, says: "The concept of Claska is a place for play… People who live around Meguro-dori want to spend their time off relaxing and enjoying themselves in their neighbourhood. We wanted to satisfy their needs by providing an accessible space in which to do that." Transit is the company responsible for the day to day running of the hotel.

Claska takes its name from "do kurasuka" (meaning how best to live). Rooms cost from ¥10,500 (US$90 – room 505 is 17m² with a glass walled bathroom) to ¥84,000 (rooms 401 [46m² and a 56m² terrace] and 402 [123m² and a 41m² terrace]) per night. Each room has an individual design. Occupants of the long-term rooms areencouraged to redesign them as they wish, creating spaces that are truly their own.

THE FACILITIES

The ground-floor lounge of the hotel is called ‘The Lobby’ and it has the ‘Essence’ bookstore, a DJ booth and a café/lounge/bar, as well as a restaurant (leather upholstered sofas furnish the hotel’s reception area and the floor is marble). There is also Dogman, a dog-grooming salon, because the hotel is situated in an area where people love to walk their dogs.

The second floor of the hotel is a multipurpose gallery and event space (Gallery CLASKA) which has hosted fashion shows, music performances, graphic design/sculpture/film/video/art/photography exhibitions and parties (Gallery A 232m², Gallery B 86m²). The third floor (Platform) holds studio and office space for six companies and organisations, representing fashion, graphic design, and architecture. The fourth and fifth floors house the hotel’s nine rooms of which no two are alike; a room over 120m², one with an attached terrace, another with a view from the bathtub.

There are also three weekly and monthly hotel rooms furnished with designer amenities and 24 residential rooms for long-term use. The 240m² rooftop lounge offers stunning panoramic views of Tokyo City centre. The lobby has a light installation that throbs more actively as more people gather in the hotel and thus acts as a ‘heart beat’ for the hotel itself and the Meguro-dori area, which is due for redevelopment.

RESIDENTS

The hotel offers 27 of its rooms for long-term stays. Fashion designers, artists and other celebrities are choosing to make it their home or office. The highly creative types in residence attract their friends and colleagues to use the hotel for other purposes. Claska provides an ideal ambience to draw more people to Meguro-dori.

The services at the hotel are minimal and a lot more emphasis is placed on the nightlife. It has been said that the hotel resembles more a nightclub with rooms attached to it. Claska is not really a hotel, or less of a hotel than a composite of diverse services and entities supported by a larger concept of art and community.

DESIGN AND CONTRACTORS

The interior design of Claska is on the cutting-edge of contemporary: the entryway and lobby lighting was by the UK design company Tomato (Steve Baker) and the rooms and lobby lounge by a collaboration of various Japanese designers including Intentionallies (Shuwa Tei), Transit (Hikaru Okada and Sadahiro Nakamura) and T.C.K.W (Yudai Tachikawa). T.C.K.W was responsible for the majority of furniture design. The hotel used handmade furniture from Bali and Thailand while also using a lot of original design pieces with an Asian/Japanese flavour. The head architect and designer was Mr. Iku Hirose of Urban Design Systems.

The hotel has also retained parts of the original New Meguro Hotel in that the original moulded concrete walls form part of the decor. The Hudson chair in one of the long-term rooms was designed by Philipe Starck in conjunction with Emeco. The western bath tub in room 505 was designed by the Cera Trading Co. The Butterfly chair in one of the long-term rooms was designed by Magis. The little tulip chair was designed by Artifort. Signage was provided by Tycoon Graphics and the General Contractor was Conseeds.

REDESIGN IN 2004

In 2004, the hotel hired Torafu Architects to remodel three of the long-term rooms so they could be offered on a weekly or monthly basis. All of these are 194ft² and were designed to accommodate contemporary Japanese artwork, an Aibo (Sony’s robot dog), furniture and the guest’s belongings. Torafu designed a space-saving feature for the three rooms, which was a wall-spanning storage unit in mahogany-veneered MDF.

This installation, called the template, can accommodate 35 common items, such as a hair dryer, desk chair, suitcase, and coffee cups, in laser-cut niches, each of which is the same shape as the object for which it’s intended. The MDF is precision laser cut in the same factory that produces parts for Porsche cars. The template is a functional and tongue in cheek design. The niches are backlit, so they can provide storage and also use items as framed and mounted works of art, complete with their own auras. Even the Sony electronic dog is housed in a glowing kennel-shape cubby hole.

The Torafu’s wall has the effect of transforming each room into a cabinet of illuminated curiosities. Torafu has also redesigned Claska’s roof terrace. The centrepiece is an oversize wood table that people can either stand on to admire the view or sit at in surrounding chairs.

2008 REFURBISHMENT

The Claska Hotel has been undergoing a period of refurbishment thoughout 2008. The hotel has been closed from between 16 January to 28 March 2008 for the refurbishment work, and will reopen on 29 March. The central concept of the refurbishment is 'Contemporary Japanese' and the hotel will be redecorating the main rooms and hallways as well as more involved projects. The Claska will now be able to offer three new designer decorated rooms (new contemporary/modern Japanese concept). In addition there will be a new gallery displaying artwork from local artists and also a new organic restaurant serving Japanese cuisine. It is possible that some of the work at the hotel could go on longer as the period of reopening has been pushed back in some reports.