INSIDE OUT

The reception counter is the first thing guests see when they step into Dogo Hakuro. Across its front, we created an artwork that embodies the hotel's design concept: industrial pop.

Hakuro offers rooms at relatively modest rates, which puts it, on price alone, in competition with ordinary business hotels. That is exactly why we felt it needed something to tell guests, intuitively and the moment they walk in, that this place is different.

The motif is the building's own organs and blood vessels: the pipes, wiring, and ducts that normally stay hidden behind walls and ceilings. As if turning the building inside out, we pulled them onto the surface as a black metal relief that runs about eight meters, from the bar counter to the reception desk.

The idea was conveyed in a single hand-drawn sketch, and fabrication was entrusted to our longtime collaborator, an ironworks with a gift for grasping our intent and running freely with it. Rather than designing everything to the last detail and having it built exactly as drawn, we believe more interesting things happen when we trust the maker's drive and inspiration and work together as partners. This piece is that belief, given form in the most direct way.