Aya Niseko Woven Screen
In 2016, I was commissioned to create a woven screen for luxury hotel development Aya Niseko in Northern Japan.
After previously sending eight of my steel sculptures to Japan, I was seeking a new assignment.
The sculptures I’d created were to be displayed in a hotel’s foyer and penthouse rooms.
The hotel’s developer told me his next project was a contemporary hotel in Hokkaido called Aya, which means ‘to flow or to weave’.
With this Japanese weaving technique in mind, I designed an off-axis woven screen. The developer, architect and interior designers loved it. This project was unlike anything I had ever taken on. The size and scale of it posed a series of unique challenges but the end result turned out to be more spectacular than I could have imagined.
“Usually the building is the art, but in this case the art makes the building.”
– Koichi Ishiguro
AYA NISEKO ARCHITECT
My concept provided over 200 square metres of decorative screens and light fittings. This stunning building facade became an exquisite addition to an already imaginative and artistic hotel concept.
Later that year I flew to Japan for the opening of the Aya Niseko. To see my art come to life like this and to be praised in such a way was a proud moment.
Commissioned by Niseko Real Estate nisekorealestate.com to design and fabricate a woven building facade to compliment the architects plans.
Over 240m2 were installed inside and outside this remarkable ski in – ski out hotel in Niseko, Hokkaido. Japan.
Budget $220k excluding installation.
The hotel is called Aya, in Japanese meaning to flow or to weave. This was my brief.
I liaise with the fabricator in China and the client/architect and installers in Japan with this project.
