Setouchi Aonagi

Architecture Tadao Ando

Architecture Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando’s walls are renowned for their smoothness, which he achieves by pouring concrete into airtight wooden forms.

Situated in the verdant Matsuyama area of Japan, overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, the structure was initially built 20 years ago as a private guesthouse. The residence was then converted into a small modern art museum before reopening as Setouchi Aonagi—all under Tadao Ando’s supervision.

Interior design Majestic minimalism

This is a place of sublime minimalist luxury, where the unnecessary is stripped away.

Perfectly complementing Ando’s “smooth-as-silk” concrete walls, museum-quality artwork abounds at the hotel. Here, a painting by Frank Stella—one of the leading figures of the postwar minimalist and abstract movements—crowns the hotel’s dining room. Guests also discover a large-scale work by calligrapher/visual artist Rieko Kawabe, whose practice is rooted in Japanese aesthetic traditions.