The hotel having been established 130 years ago, has a very long history in retaining much of the spirit of architect, Togo Murano’s elegant and graceful design. The theme for this hotel’s major renovation, which began in 2018, is ‘Queen of Elegance’, including the final areas of this particular renovation is the existing indoor pool and the guest rooms on the upper floors to be integrated into a spa and spa facility. The site is located in Nanzenji area near a group of villas on the hillside east of central Kyoto, where pioneering cultural figures of the time in the Meiji era moved to as their retreat destination. Additional, Nanzenji Temple itself also boasts an elegantly Western-oriented design of the Waterway Pavilion (Suido-kaku ) built in the same era. As such the main design theme this time round has also incorporated western oriented designs as its main motif with natural landscape set as the backdrop to depict the mountain ridges seen from the slope on the site. The water from the Biwako Sosui Canal, which was drawn from this pavilion, is still partially used in the existing hotel today, making it a very familiar and unique feature to of the hotel and the new spa facility also has a semi-open-air bath that new which connected directly to the nature outside. For the renovation of the former guest room floor, where the new spa reception is located, , we focused mainly on not making the limited ceiling height to be so impactful but instead making it feel more grand in essence . The entire interior is wood-grained to evoke a sense of natural healing and of luxury. From the entrance lobby, a large staircase leads down to the lower floor, where the drinks lounge is located along with changing rooms both male and female further down the passage. The theme colors of the men’s and women’s changing rooms are separated by the seasonal colours of the maple, “tokomidori,” in green and “tokomomiji” in red respectively with polished black floor to mimic the reflection seen on the Japanese lacquered floors at Ruriko-Temple in Kyoto, where similarly seasonal changes to the foliage are indeed reflected by the lustrous floor in early summer and autumn. The interior of the hot spring baths are also boldly curved to express the elegance and beauty of nature. In the semi-open-air bath, the form of a waterway pavilion is placed on the wall, and the pond and plants outside the bath are effectively incorporated to create a space where one can feel a sense of unity with the surrounding landscape.