A condominium hotel in Niseko, Hokkaido, a world-famous ski resort known for its powder snow. Whilst including luxurious guest rooms, it also includes public facilities such as ski lockers, onsen and a restaurant, thus making it is a complex that caters for all ski enthusiasts. The façade is treated with stripes of copper-coloured stainless-steel mesh, which were inspired by the surrounding Shirakaba birch trees that glow red during dusk in the glistening white snowscape. Its pattern is determined through privacy and views towards Niseko’s symbol, the Yotei mountain. The meshes create shadows that transform with every moment, thus sublimating a monolithic volume that buildings in heavy snow areas tend to succumb to, into a new delicate symbol, which is Japanese in nature. The meshes also provide a screen for air outlets such as the vent caps, as well as serving as a large lighting equipment that illuminates the exterior. Through numerous analysis and mock-ups, the meshes became a symbol that can resist not solely earthquakes and storms, but heavy snowfall as well.
For restaurant and reception spaces, a decorative shelf / screen exceeding 20 meters called “Diamond dust screen” gives unique materiality as a symbol of interior space. The screen composed of different patter layers creates literally a visual effect like diamond dust.