The Alder Rooms

The Alder Rooms is an 18-key guesthouse in a converted machiya on the edge of Kyoto’s Higashiyama district. Our approach treated the lobby and lounge as the emotional centre of the stay — a place guests would linger before and after the day, rather than pass through.

Vertical timber battening, sourced from a family-run mill outside Kyoto, wraps the lounge and softens the acoustics of a double-height space. Each guest room follows the same material logic at a smaller scale: plaster walls, low platform beds, and a single considered art piece, so the interior never competes with the garden views beyond.