Outside of Tokyo, Nasu Highlands is a lush farming region and urban escape dominated by Mount Nasu. PokoPoko by Klein Dytham Architecture is the playful result of the client’s desire to connect two hotel buildings and provide a new amenity on a lush resort site.
The client’s vision includes the extension and renovation of both existing hotel buildings and their rooms. This includes an original smaller guest house dating from 1986 and a larger later complex. The total number of rooms on site is 40. A new footbridge links the two hotel buildings and a new path meanders through the forest. It is here, that PokoPoko emerges to provide a family-oriented clubhouse and activity centre for hotel guests.
With 3 roof cones that point out lightheartedly in different directions, PokoPoko means ‘to stick out or stick up’ in Japanese. Each cone of PokoPoko houses its own function. The middle cone allows for cooking activities based on fresh ingredients grown on the hotel’s premises. The next cone houses a tall net structure to entice children to play and climb towards the skylight. Smaller kids can play in a ball pool at the bottom.
For parents, the third cone offers a place for relaxation around an open fireplace. Here, guests sit on Klein Dytham Architecture’s Dora Dora furniture while enjoying 360-degree views of surrounding trees.
The roof structure is made of local pine. Two slender timber members with spaced off-cuts form beams, which rise from a lower steel ring beam to a smaller ring which is part of the rooflight.
The beams are skinned with plywood sheets to form a tensioned skin. A layer of rigid insulation is held in place by a grid of timber battens, forming a ventilated cavity, which in turn gets skinned by another layer of plywood, which along with a breather paper layer forms the base for the shingle roof.
Currently, the hotel and clubhouse have been in high demand as urban dwellers seek respite from Japan’s cities.
