The OKI House is one of the three groups of buildings called ‘NIPPONIA HOTEL Ozu Castle Town’, a series of kominka, old traditional Japanese houses, turned into accommodation. The buildings of the OKI House situated at the end of a T-junction named Ohanahan-dori which was the stage of one of the NHK’s morning drama serials ‘Ohana-han’ (broadcast in 1966). The Oki House, a set of four buildings used to be owned and lived by Chojiro Murakami, a wealthy Japanese wallow merchant, in the Edo period. The accommodation consists of six guest rooms in the four buildings. We planned to create three guest rooms within Chojiro’s residence which was the largest of the four buildings with more than ten rooms and to convert the two terrace houses (nagaya) next to the main building and the two-store warehouse into buildings for whole house rental.

Regarding the two nagaya buildings for whole house rental, there were some relatively recent extensions and finishes. The condition of the extensions was poor, probably due to an unreasonable construction work. Therefore, based on the report which was already available then, we decided to downsize the building in order for it to regain its former appearance. Form the point of view of both aseismatic reinforcement and renewal of any decayed part of the building, removing the unreasonable extensions was a useful method.

The structure of all the buildings, except for the warehouse, was thoroughly reviewed from the foundation. All the decayed or damaged parts were replaced or renewed. In addition, aseismatic repairs were carried out according to Japan’s Building Standards Act and flexible structure which meets eccentric ratio regulation. The basic plan was reviewed a number of times in the planning stage of the renovation. Starting from a plane design, we created aseismic design plan followed by a ground survey. Then we reviewed the plane design so it reflected the aseismic design plan, taking also the business point of view into consideration. In addition, it was necessary to make decisions on which historically important features would remain or be updated. This process was repeated over and over again until the image of the whole plan became absolutely clear. Moreover, because one of the purposes of staying at dispersed hotels like this is to stay in the community, we looked to the characteristics of the castle town for design sources.

For Chojiro Murakami’s residence which has three guest rooms, the area which used to be a passage running through the building remains as a shared space connecting all the guest rooms. Each room is designed for the guests to enjoy the view from the windows as well as the whole picture of the room with the windows. As for the interior finishing, the aged earthen walls and the board and batten ceiling are preserved as they are as much as possible. A new garden was built in the space created by removing the unwanted extension in the east of the two nagaya buildings standing on the land extending east and west. We reconstructed the courtyard which was originally built to introduce sunlight into the nagaya, a traditional row house.

The warehouse with thick earth walls, which originally served as a treasure storehouse, did not undergo a major renovation, because the building was in good condition. Having said that, however, it was difficult to decide on the arrangement of equipment in a water use section, which is required to make a building into a lodging facility. To begin with, Japanese traditional warehouse like this has its floor installed higher than normal houses to avoid water coming in and the clay walls are thick to avoid the sunlight and control humidity. These features and the necessity to have a water section for guests do not come to terms with each other. In the end we decided to install a water section nesting into the ground floor. The nesting water section fitted with glass allows the guests to see through the other side. The existing underfloor ventilation is used for all the piping instead of making extra holes into the thick walls. The site of demolished warehouse with remained foundation stones next to the renovated building was turned into a garden for the guests. The door of the board fence facing the street is situated at the spot where the entrance to the demolished warehouse used to be.

After its opening the lights from the guest rooms facing the street began to illuminate the night of the castle town like lamps, said the people of the town to us proudly.