The boutique hospitality chain, Ace Hotel has announced it will open its first-ever Japanese outpost next year with a Kengo Kuma designed building in Kyoto. According to the company's president, Brad Wilson, "it’s been [a] long-standing dream to put down roots in Japan." "We feel incredibly humbled and grateful to...make our dreams a reality, creating a space that honors the beauty and history of Kyoto while fostering global connection and cultural innovation" he said.

Known for taking over cool spaces, the hipster hotel chain will be moving into Tetsuro Yoshida’s 1920 Kyoto Central Telephone Officebuilding. Kuma, who is also responsible for Tokyo’s impending Olympic Stadium, will give the building a modern update with a wooden grid system and fine louvers and meshes that gently filter light and wind. The scheme will also feature various gardens which have existed since the Heian period.

According to the hotel, the surrounding neighborhood sits on the former grounds of the imperial palace and is rumored to once have been the home of Japanese samurai. Kuma's redesign will embrace this imperial legacy as well as the region’s industrial history. "The existing Kyoto central telephone office building was designed by one of the great Japanese modern architects Tetsuro Yoshida" Kuma said. "Every detail and material was thought through to connect the building, land and history together."