A 1967 Tokyo Warehouse Becomes an Architecture Firm's Office
Not A Hotel Architects has turned a 1967 warehouse in Tokyo into its own office and headquarters, leaving much of the rough concrete and steel in place. Dezeen reported the project on 11 November 2026.
The building was once a logistics warehouse, built in the brutalist style. That style leaves structural concrete and steel bare, with no decorative covering. The architects kept the existing steel frame and the exposed concrete surfaces. The interior ceilings rise seven metres.
To organise the open floor, the team divided the plan into three rows separated by glass partitions three metres high. The glass keeps each zone distinct while letting light and views pass through the space.
One of the most unusual features is an original demountable house designed by Jean Prouvé, the French designer. A demountable house is a building made from parts that can be taken apart and moved. It has its own room and is used for work or meetings.
The Harumi Lounge holds a wooden table 15 metres long. The Nigo Lounge sits near the entrance. Part of the goods collection of Nigo, the designer behind the Nigo House, is displayed in USM Haller boxes, a modular steel shelving system, stacked up to the ceiling. Globe Trotter trunks, the travel cases, store the company's material archive.
The Nigo House is a hotel built into a cliff overlooking Tokyo Bay. Dezeen describes Nigo as an artist. The office's name is also the name of a company that sells a different kind of stay. According to the company's website, NOT A HOTEL units can be bought starting at 10 nights per year, and buyers can use them every year after purchase.
Those purchases are based on ownership, so an owner can sell a unit or pass it on through inheritance. Owners can also use NOT A HOTEL properties across the country. The company says owners do not manage maintenance themselves, and they pay no room charge for each stay.
For anyone who has walked past an old warehouse and wondered what it could become, this Tokyo project offers one answer. The rough structure stays, and the new users fill it with furniture, collections and a house that can be moved.
