Jean Nouvel Designs NOT A HOTEL YAKUSHIMA: A Poetic Dialogue Between Stone, Glass, and Nature

Japanese hospitality brand NOT A HOTEL Co., Ltd. has unveiled its newest venture: NOT A HOTEL YAKUSHIMA, a project designed by the renowned French practice Ateliers Jean Nouvel.

Yakushima, an island off the coast of Kagoshima in southern Japan, is a UNESCO World Heritage site celebrated for its primeval landscapes and centuries-old cedar forests.

Founded by the celebrated “magician of light” Jean Nouvel, Ateliers Jean Nouvel is acclaimed for crafting poetic architecture that dissolves the boundaries between human and natural, physical and spiritual, real and imagined.

The design for NOT A HOTEL YAKUSHIMA combines rock and glass, giving the impression of a structure emerging naturally from the ground, reflecting rainfall and echoing the sounds of flowing water.

Jean Nouvel’s concept for NOT A HOTEL YAKUSHIMA

The most sophisticated things belong to nature—its landscapes, its paths, its reliefs, the views that will be revealed. Everything else is absence.

This project is not about creating for those who wish to live here, but about falling in love—with a tree, a blade of grass, or a stone.

Like a collector of modern art, one finds in stones, gardens, or bare ground the ideal way to experience the island. It’s nature, it’s a place, it’s a work of art, it’s rain, it’s the sound of water.

At its base lies the stone—a permanent presence, shaped by time, rain, and wind, carrying the patina of years. Around it, rocks and blocks of stone are arranged with the ambition of creating something that feels as if it has always been here.

The island is like a treasure, a place where everything can change—something can be added or removed— yet always offering the calm pleasure of contemplation. Here, time is constant, and calmness must be absolute, meditative.

The simplest materials, like glass, are chosen to heighten the awareness of rain, to reveal the transparency of water, the sky behind it, and the elementary, natural emotions that arise.

Sales for the vacation residence will launch in summer 2026, offered under NOT A HOTEL’s signature fractional ownership scheme, as with the company’s other properties. 


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Visualizations courtesy of NOT A HOTEL