Dream chambers

By Peter Maxwell 16 : 03 : 2016 The Bed & Art Project : Koenji : Hotel

Japan – The Bed & Art Project asks artists to design hotel rooms in return for a share of the booking fees.

The first location, BnA Hotel Koenji, will open rooms and facilities throughout its host city
Guests are offered the opportunity to stay ‘in an art piece’

The Bed & Art Project (BnA) aims to support struggling Japanese artists. Purchasing art is not yet common practice in Japan, making it difficult for artists to survive on sales of their work. BnA invites artists to create bespoke hotel rooms, from which they will then receive a percentage share of all bookings. Two Airbnb properties in Kyoto and Ikebukuro were used as proof of concept.

The first location, BnA Hotel Koenji, will be constructed from rooms throughout the city of Koenji, creating clusters of accommodation and other facilities that together act as one venue. The distributed hotel model is designed to enable guests to integrate more easily with local communities.

The initial stage of the project includes a bar, gallery, roof terrace and two hotel rooms, all in one building. The first two rooms have been created by artists Yohei Takahashi and Ryuichi Ogino.

The Big Picture

Today’s peripatetic consumers are now as interested in the community that a hotel offers access to as much as the facilities it provides. For more on Life-lodging see our New Bricolage Living macrotrend.