The Hotel Canata Kyoto is located overlooking the World Heritage-listed Nijō Castle, in an area where guests can enjoy Kyoto’s unique history and culture. Festival such as the traditional “Kyō no Tanabata” festival held on the Horikawa river that flows right in front of the hotel gives the area a rich history. Based on an overarching concept of “enjoying Japan with a modern sense of beauty,” designers in a range of fields participated in the planning and collaborated in the project for this hotel. We took charge of the construction design and the guest room interior design, which enabled us to include a welcoming terrace built in the image of that Kyoto summer fixture, the kawadoko (a platform built over a river), to maximize the view towards Nijō Castle and the Horikawa river. The exterior is designed around horizontal lines that express the flow of water, created by using undressed concrete with Japanese cedar molds and nerikomi tiles (tiles with color kneaded into them). The exterior color has been matched to the stone wall of Nijō Castle to ensure that the hotel blends in with the surrounding townscape. Although the hotel is cozy with only 16 rooms, care has been taken so that guests can enjoy a sense of quality and hospitality as would normally be found in a luxury hotel. We also used a structure where the wall and floor materials seamlessly connect the inside and the outside of the room. The interior materials have a wide variety of textures, including wood, iron, brass, leather, and concrete that achieves a simple yet luxurious world view.