villa cocoon envelops guests in modern agricultural living in japan

‘villa cocoon’ in japan takes its design cues from its name as the guest rooms form the shape of a butterfly or moth’s home before it hatches.

matthew burgos November 8, 2022 4 min

Making mountain living a lifestyle in Villa Cocoon

Villa Cocoon sits atop the hill of the mortar-shaped Kurkku Fields in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture in Japan, making mountain and agricultural living open to hotel guests. The idea of the hotel construction stems from the concept of cocoons, executed with the use of wood.

Butterflies and moths stay inside their cocoons for days before they hatch and fly with their fully developed wings and energy. In Villa Cocoon, guests stay to rejuvenate by being part of a community that makes mountain and agricultural living a daily routine.

Villa Cocoon in Kurkku Fields, Japan — images courtesy of Kurkku Fields

Hotel guests walk up to the hill where the accommodation is located, and from the get-go, they see an expansive view of the greenery where six small, cocoon-shaped guest rooms hide between the growing plants, trees, and shrubs (depending on the season).

These guest rooms are connected to a kitchen lounge, a restaurant, and a sauna hut that guests share, and the intention is to encourage them to interact with each other after resting in the bedrooms.

Inside the sleeping areas, the generous design of the windows affords the sojourners a canvas-like painting of nature outside. White walls bond with wooden furniture to underline the Japanese ethos of minimalism. On the balcony, the architecture curves to signal the start of the cocoon inspiration.

Here, the views aren’t obstructed by the walls, but they create a frame design to give guests the impression that what they’re looking at is a picture they can wander around and touch once they walk outside their rooms.

Guests can harvest their own produce

Searching for food means learning how to harvest the ingredients from the agricultural site that envelops the terrain. Villa Cocoon stays in touch with the environment, agriculture, and living creatures, and guests are encouraged rather than invited to cook their own meals using the ingredients harvested from farms and mountains.

They can even go out to these areas and pick their own produce if they desire, amplifying the purpose of Villa Cocoon in making them feel the enjoyment of all encounters possible.

If guests don’t feel like cooking, they can drop by the open cafe where sweet and light meals are served or in the restaurant where the philosophy of mountain living through local produce runs through the preparation and dishes.

Going back to the kitchen, the space is divided by a long island where tall chairs accompany the seating arrangement. It runs as a single line to continue the desire to bond with everyone in the room.

While the guests savor the flavors of the good, the landscape-sized windows in front of them pose as a giant TV screen where they can watch tall, native trees sway against the breeze. After they’re done with their meals, they might want to burn off some of the calories.

Guests can do so by popping in the Finnish sauna next to the kitchen lounge. It’s best to let the hotel staff know that guests want to use it, so they can check the schedule and properly prepare the sauna room for them.

Coexisting with nature and agricultural lifestyle emerges as the key concept of Kurkku Fields. Today, it permeates the design, architecture, and intention of Villa Cocoon whose theme creates a desire to live sufficiently in a minimal space.

From the objects that adorn the rooms to the positions they occupy, the villa lives up to its pursuit of bolstering the comfort and joy in living that guests want to experience and achieve. Villa Cocoon is set to open on November 24th, 2022.