Restyling HOGAN: landscape and architecture shape the interior

A residential property consisting of the main house, outbuilding, and garden is renovated and gives birth to HOGAN, a Zen garden that interacts with the two revitalized architectures: a house with traditional Japanese elegance but updated with contemporary comforts and a cottage dedicated to tourist accommodation in a unique setting

1000 square meters brought back to life, blending landscape, architecture, and interior design

Kenzo Makino & Associates signs the house renovation and cottage built in traditional Japanese style 50 years ago, while the Zen garden was designed by the company Sone Zouen, known for its longstanding collaboration with the Imperial House Agency and the Zen temples of the Rinzai school. HOGAN, located in the Oku-Saga area near the Arashiyama district of Kyoto, is the result of approximately 1000 square meters brought back to life, blending landscape, architecture, and interior design

Main House Restyling

The restyling of the main house is punctual and delicate, respecting its "silently elegant Japanese style" (Kenzo Makino & Associates) preserved from a previous careful living: small interventions are carried out on deteriorated parts and the plumbing system to adapt the residence to contemporary life. For the selected surfaces to be renewed, a moodboard of black-colored materials is chosen to help perceive the space as less vast and reduce the visual clutter of everyday life

The cottage for total immersion in the Japanese atmosphere

Regarding the cottage, which had already been modified with more recent finishes, the architects intervene more decisively to create the right conformation for the new function: a guesthouse that offers guests, also thanks to the powerful presence of the Zen garden, the total immersion in the Japanese atmosphere. Its 43 square meters are distributed in a living area, including living room, dining area, and kitchen, a bathroom area with a dramatic sunken floor-level bathtub, and a bedroom

Constant dialogue with the outside defines and furnishes the internal architecture

The small independent building is surrounded by the garden it overlooks to the north and south; the architects seize the richness of this conformation to expand the internal space of the cottage beyond itself. The constant dialogue with the outside defines and furnishes the internal architecture: a “tunnel” between gardens, with completely openable sliding windows, with a floor in continuity with the outside in a tactile alternation of polished and unpolished stone and polished concrete, a uniform wall finish that runs from outside to inside and vice versa. A final tribute to the landscape is the floor-level pool which, filled with water, reflects the garden and gently introduces it into the house

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Kenzo Makino & Associates

Kyoto, Japan