濑户内非酒店丨日本丨丹麦工作室BIG

Danish studio BIG has completed its first buildings in Japan, creating a trio of rammed-earth villas on the remote island of Sagishima for hotelier Not A Hotel.

Named Not A Hotel Setouchi, the trio of villas sits alongside a restaurant pavilion and has access to its own private beach.

According to BIG, the rammed-earth structures were designed as "extensions of the dramatic topography" of their 30,000-square-metre beachfront site and to provide visitors with uninterrupted views of the natural landscape.

BIG has created a trio of villas in Japan

"Not A Hotel Setouchi are our first completed buildings in Japan, a culture that has had a profound impact on myself and my understanding of architecture," said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.

"The archipelago around Sagishima is like a Japanese landscape painting. Steep rolling hills covered in lush green vegetation erupt from the tranquillity of the Seto Inland Sea. The four pavilions are conceived as extensions of the dramatic topography," he added.

"On one hand, each home is like an inhabited view, open and extroverted. On the other, their spinal walls outline a private and protected space – open only to the sky."

They were created for hotelier Not A Hotel

The earth used to create the four-bedroom villas was taken directly from the site. They are positioned to wind up the hillside "like a ribbon".

While this positioning helps them to appear as part of the landscape, it is also intended to maximise views so each villa can "respond to its unique position".

They feature solar-tiled roofs that nod to traditional Japanese architecture

The Not A Hotel villa at the highest point, named 360 after its panoramic views, is a ring-shaped pavilion that encircles a private courtyard.

Meanwhile, the central villa named 270 has a 270-degree view of the surrounding sea and incorporates a sauna and outdoor loungers arranged around a pool "like floating islands".

The third villa, placed closest to the water's edge, is named 180 and has a curved form that draws on the coastline, with an inner courtyard lined with mossy pathways.

Rammed earth was used to construct the villas

"When we first visited Sagishima, we found ourselves tracing the terraced contours of the site, always drawn toward the horizon," said BIG partner Leon Rost.

"That walk wrote the architecture – each step along the hillside became the curving forms of the villas, their long facades opening to capture the panoramic sea."

The interiors are designed as open spaces

The three villas are unified by glass facades that dissolve the boundary between inside and out, as well as various elements that nod to traditional Japanese architecture.

These include black-slate floors that take cues from the layout of tatami mats and solar-tiled roofs that nod to traditional tiled roofs in Japanese architecture.

Inside, the Not A Hotel Setouchi villas are designed as one large space, with bathrooms and storage contained within skylit pods. They are complete with traditional Japanese baths, heated infinity pools and "calming colour palettes", the studio said.

"The project stands as a remarkable convergence of Danish design and philosophy, traditional Japanese architecture, and the technical sophistication and construction precision of contemporary Japan," concluded BIG associate Ryohei Koike.

The villas provide uninterrupted views of the coastal landscape

BIG is the latest architecture studio to design for Not A Hotel. Elsewhere, Zaha Hadid Architects is developing a snaking hotel for the brand that will perch above a coastal site in Okinawa, while Sou Fujimoto recently completed a coastal holiday home on Ishigaki Island with a sloping green roof.

Other recent projects by BIG include a design for a pop-up stadium for artist Shakira and a wellness space for a "landscape-led masterplan" in Istanbul.

Employees from the studio's London office recently demonstrated in response to proposed mass layoffs at the firm.

The photography is by Kenta Hasegawa.