As the city of Tokyo gears up for an historic summer, a new player makes its grand entrance on the capital’s exciting – and diverse – hotel landscape.
K5, opening this month, presents a micro-complex of guest rooms, restaurants, bars and social spaces bound together by “aimai” – a Japanese word roughly translating to vague or obscure, with entirely positive connotations.
Its 20 generously sized rooms and suites, designed by Swedish firm Claesson Koivisto Rune, are defined by dramatic veiled columns, custom-made furniture and a liberal application of native materials.
K5 Tokyo’s guest rooms and suites are defined by dramatic veiled columns
The hotel anchors the newly revitalised Kabuto-cho, the financial center of Japan where retail, bars, bistros and co-working spaces housed in old buildings are slowly reshaping the landscape of an area best known for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The four-storey former concrete bank that houses the hotel dates to the 1920s and accordingly aligns with the classic architectural aesthetic typical of this area. Its revamp fully respect to the original features of the building.
Original raw concrete flooring is augmented with newer floor coverings honed from the same material, while traditional accents, such as cedar wood and Japanese stucco, maintain a mood of authenticity.
K5’s coffee shop gently seeps into the wine bar and then the restaurant
A series of spaces with unclear boundaries lend themselves to versatile areas that have the capacity to change character throughout the day. Public areas such as the reception also duals as a coffee shop that gently seeps into the wine bar and then the restaurant.
The grand proportions of each high-ceilinged space are compounded by the minimal arrangement of sofas, leather recliners and flowerpots positioned around each veiled core, while record players accompanied by curated vinyl collections introduce a touch of intimacy.
The Caveman eatery presents progressive Japanese cuisine on long communal tables
Rounding out the hotel’s impressive offering is a food, beverage and social program that features the basement level B, Brooklyn Brewery’s first tap room outside of New York, serving tacos and craft beer, and the ground floor Ao, a celebration of mixology and Chinese medicine.
Further underlining the hotel’s positioning as social hub is Caveman, a spinoff of the hugely popular Tokyo restaurant Kabi. Led by chef Atsuki Kuroda, the eatery presents progressive Japanese cuisine in a space characterised by wooden parquet flooring, long communal tables and raw concrete walls.
