A fifty-something years old wooden house on Japan‘s rural Gogoshima Island has been transformed into a contemporary guest house, the renovation led by Chiasma Factory (with Naoya Kurose Atelier as supporting architects) with a view to respecting the building’s history and retaining existing features wherever possible.
Located just off Matsuyama City in Ehime Prefecture, the island attracts visitors seeking out pristine beaches, shrines, hiking trails, citrus farming and bathhouses, and Guest House YULLAT provides not only a place to stay but seeks to immerse guests in the island’s cultural through a design that reflects the area’s heritage in the Setouchi Islands.
The core design concept extensively leveraged the existing wooden frame and, thanks to careful intervention with minimum additional elements, Chiasma Factory were able to preserve the exposure of the intricate wooden roofing during demolition, allowing visitors to appreciate the structural beauty of a masterpiece that was built over half a century ago.
The single storey property features loosely connected and overlapping zones which centre around a large space with an earthen floor serving as a communal area. The use of traditional, largely natural materials such as plaster, bare wood, and tatami (a traditional Japanese flooring mat) underscores the renovation’s sustainability focus while realising the subtle balance of old and new.
A model of sustainable tourism and showcasing how innovative design can breathe new life into old structures, at Guest House YULLAT, travellers can truly connect with the authentic lifestyle of this part of Japan.
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Guest House YULLAT Japan Photography, Shingo Tsuji / courtesy BowerBird.
