PROFILE
In addition to planning and managing Farmer's Market @ UNU in Aoyama and COMMUNE in Omotesando, he also publishes his own publications such as "NORAH" and "TRUEPORTLAND. He has collaborated with hotels, sports brands, developers, publishers, manufacturers, municipalities, governments, etc. At K5, he is mainly responsible for tenant curation and branding.
PROFILE
A hotel production and management company established in 2010 with the philosophy of "creating places where people can gather across all boundaries. The company's strength lies in its ability to provide a one-stop service for everything from concept planning, design, and design to operations. K5's main responsibilities include overall concept planning and curation for the FERMENT team.
PROFILE
With offices in Tokyo and Singapore, this international team handles hotel planning, development, and management in a single operation. The team has opened five hotels in Bali, Sri Lanka, and Italy, and in Japan has entered the workplace, residence, and community development business in addition to hotels. At K5, he is mainly in charge of project management, hotel operations, and funding.
Already a cordial relationship.
What kind of facility is "K5"?
Matsui:We call K5 a "micro-complex. The building has space from the basement to the fourth floor, with a hotel on the second through fourth floors, a reception area, restaurant, wine bar, and coffee stand on the first floor, and a beer hall in the basement.
The hotel occupies the most of the exclusive space, but the restaurant, beer hall, bar, and coffee stand are all even. In other words, they all play a leading role.
You said that each of them is an independent entity, not a "restaurant in a hotel" or a "bar in a hotel".
Matsui:Yes, that's right. We felt that it is not up to us to decide what kind of facility this is. We wanted to create a place where visitors could enjoy themselves freely. It is our intention to make this a place where visitors can enjoy themselves freely. We called it a "micro-complex" in the sense that it is a small, small complex.
How did you start this project?
Honma:The "Nihonbashi Kabutocho/Kayabacho Revitalization Project" is currently underway in Kabutocho, and we were approached about two years ago as part of this project. Kabutocho is known as a financial district with a stock exchange. So we wanted to make this town an international financial city, a place where people who are active internationally can gather. As a start, they wanted us to build a hotel as a place for them to stay.
K5" was created by renovating a building that was originally a bank. When we visited at the end of last year, it was still under preparation.
I see. What did you think when you received the request?
Honma:The total floor space from the first basement to the fourth floor is 2,000 square meters, which is huge, and the building is really cool to begin with, so I thought it would be more fun to work with someone else than to do it by myself. In particular, I thought that the lively spaces in the basement and on the first floor would be key, so over drinks with Mr. Matsui, I asked him, "Why don't we work together? I asked him over drinks.
（Yudai has experience in building hotels, so I asked him to help me with the project and the funding. So the three of us started the project together.
What exactly is the division of roles among the three members?
Honma:That is quite ambiguous (laughs). I am the initiator, Mr. Matsui curates the restaurants, and Yudai manages the project, but we all overlap with each other. Each person is responsible for his or her own role, but at the same time, we all discuss and come up with ideas together. That's why it's ambiguous (laughs).
Oka:The way the team is put together is not skill-based. It is not a "you are good at this, so I will give you this job," but rather a "we get along well, so let's work together. For better or worse, we have a playful team structure (laughs).
Honma:That's right. I have always wanted to work with the two of you, and now that the ball has rolled in our direction, I feel like we should do something together using that ball.
Matsui-san and Oka-san, what did you think when Homma-san approached you?
Matsui:When I first came here, I was really motivated by the cool building and the great location (laughs). I run the "Farmer's Market" at the United Nations University and the "Commune" in Omotesando, but I can only spend a few hours a day with the customers who come to these events. But with a hotel, you can create a longer time. Check in, have a drink at the beer hall, eat at the restaurant, drink wine at the bar, rest at the hotel, and relax with coffee in the morning. I feel that Homma's desire to do something interesting and my desire to create such a place resonated with each other.
Oka:My company is involved in hotel planning and development. While doing such work, I kept thinking about the significance of hotels. I wanted to think about how a hotel would make a good town, or how a hotel would create a nice view, attract people to move in, create a community, and make the economy revolve. I wanted to do something like that. However, I had a complex about whether I had been able to do that so far, and I was still not perfect.
Both of you here have been creating places and changing the scenery of the city. Homma has created a hostel, and Matsui-san operates a "farmer's market" and a "commune," creating places and scenery that will remain in people's memories. I have to admit that I was excited to work with both of them. I thought we could do something that had never been done before.
