Design-led hospitality chain ninehours has established itself as an innovator in capsule hotels, launching a growing number of next-generation properties across Japan in recent years. The company has recently opened its tenth hotel, and this time it’s at a key location in Osaka. It’s actually situated at Shin Osaka Station, a major public transport hub for both Shinkansen or bullet trains and subway lines, and as such, an ideal place for a stop-over in this major town. Based on the simple addition of overnight time spent at a hotel when traveling – that’s taking a shower: 1 hour + sleep: 7 hours + getting dressed: 1 hour = 9 hours – we’d say the ninehours concept is suitable for short stays of any kind. The ninehours Shin Osaka Station occupies a slender seven-storey modern structure right across the street from the elevated rail tracks, featuring a façade that’s covered by intricately constructed steel scaffolding and eight large billboards from top to bottom.
Interestingly, it’s an architectural gimmick of sorts which allows the building to effortlessly blend into the local urban fabric, and it comes with an artsy yet unusual bonus too – the backside of the billboards are actually used as screens to project images on. Mind you, as a guest you’ll be able to access the roof to enjoy both this display and views of the area. Similar to all other ninehours hotels, the interior design and pods have been created by acclaimed designer Fumie Shibata of Tokyo-based Design Studio S. The pods, measuring 110cm wide by 220cm deep by 110cm tall (43in wide by 87in deep by 43in tall), are advanced in design to ensure maximum comfort and a good night’s sleep. A total of 164 pods can be found on the premises of ninehours Shin Osaka Station, divided across separate men’s and women’s sections. Mind you, a stay at any of the ninehours properties comes with complimentary locker storage, exclusive ninehours clothing, and excellent communal bathrooms. Forgot to bring your toothbrush? No worries, it’s provided for free, just like a bath towel, shampoo and conditioner.
ninehours Shin Osaka Station
1-19-9 Higashi Nakajima (Shin Osaka)
Osaka 533-0033
Telephone: +81 6 61959509
Online booking only
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
