K8

Project Description

Pontocho, the famous night district in the centre of Kyoto, unfolds to its visitors as a horizontal labyrinth of myriad encounters.

Located just behind Pontocho, K8, a small building housing a bar and a gallery, is the translation of that experience into the vertical: one continuous space stretching over eight levels.

As a homogeneous yet continuously changing surface, the façade creates an ambiguity often found in Kyoto’s architecture.

Several hundred wooden louvers evoke a sense of subtle motion. Facing the building, one is left without a precise answer as to how many floors or how deep the building might be. Towards the sides, the louvers rotate and thereby almost appear to be a solid, albeit nuanced, wall. Towards the middle, varying degrees of transparency give hints of the intricate space waiting inside.

As we walk towards the entrance, the building begins to dance…