Love the authentic experience of travelling but want to avoid the budget nature of traditional hostels? A new sort of hostel is emerging – enter the Bunka Hostel in Tokyo.
We’ve seen design hotels and their many and varied boutique iterations – but what about design hostels?
Space Design’s new hotel has been designed to offer the design loving traveller an authentic Japanese experience, without the pratfalls of budget hostel accommodation. Targeted at the ‘flash-packing’ crowd, the cohort of travellers who may enjoy an adventure but also like to indulge in a little luxury, the Bunka Hostel has been imbued with a sense of contemporary Japanese style.
Rather than superficially showcase a cliché collection of stereotypically ‘traditional’ Japanese design flourishes, Space Design opted to have the hostel reflect modern Japanese design ideals and the sensibilities, creating a sense of shared comfort.
An invisible code crafted to have guests experience an imperceptible sense of serenity is present throughout the design of the spaces. Custom-designed bunk beds, much larger than iconic-yet-claustrophobic-micro pods found in capsule hotels, allow guests to indulge in both a sense of traveller charm, and a contemporary level of style, comfort and privacy.
Japanese tiles on walls and floors throughout the seven levels radiate unobtrusive cleanliness and minimalism, recalling Japan’s design and cultural philosophies. Stacks of authentic sake cups in the ground level bar invite guests, the public, and onlookers to peer inside the window to modern hostel style.
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
At 3daysofdesign 2026, AHEC’s immersive exhibition traced the journey of American hardwood from forest to finished product.
As Woven Image celebrates 40 years, it introduces a new collection developed in collaboration with Australian artist Ben Goss, inspired by his original artwork Where the Kookaburra Sits into a vibrant collection of digitally printed EchoPanel® murals and patterns.
When Italian furniture maker, Pedrali partnered with design studio, Formafantasma, the collaboration was always going to result in something both elevated and imbued with impeccable detail and flair.
The Geelong College’s Sport and Wellbeing Centre ‘Belerren’ designed by Wardle is designed around bringing in natural light. But Shade Factor’s job was to help modulate and precisely control it for the most important competitive moments.
Fantastical worlds and life-sized fun, Neobio by X+Living is a children’s play centre with a difference – it also considers the parents.
With the recent opening of The Calile Hotel – Richards & Spence’s latest addition to the James Street precinct they helped to revitalise – we thought it was time to sit down with the practice to explore its unique and transformative approach to design.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
At a packed awards night in Melbourne, the design community from all corners of the Asia-Pacific region came together to celebrate an incredible range of winners.