NOT A HOTEL is redefining hospitality in Japan.Our ongoing collaboration—designing a series of hilltop villas across the Seto Uchi archipelago—has become a true Danish-Japanese fusion, not just in aesthetics, but in spirit. Architect and client have evolved into an integrated, interactive, and collaborative organism.

Rarely have I encountered a client as engaged, inventive, and deeply involved as Not A Hotel.

Their openness, initiative, and ingenuity have transformed this process into a genuine partnership—one where every line drawn and every idea proposed finds resonance and response.This design competition is not just a call for submissions—it's an invitation to dream. To imagine architecture not as limitation but as liberation. Because here is a client that doesn't just accept the power of design—they amplify it. Their offer to guests is bold: to inhabit a living, breathing architectural fantasy.So my advice to participants is this: Don't win by managing expectations. Instead, risk falling short—because you aimed too high. It is in that daring that greatness lies.

I look forward to seeing what visions you will share, and to working with Not A Hotel to identify the proposal that represents the next leap forward—wider in scope, higher in ambition.

To all participants: good luck. Be bold. Be audacious. Be unreasonable. I'll do my part to ensure the best ideas rise to the top.

The architecture created by NOT A HOTEL embraces the rhythms of nature, serving not only as vessels that deeply inscribe human time, but also as bridges that connect daily life to the future.

What is truly required to unlock the full potential of a place and to carry its essential value forward to the next generation?

I invite you to confront this question earnestly with your fresh sensibilities. We, the judges, look forward to encountering proposals so exciting that they might even stir a sense of envy within us.

The MASU project began with the question, "What is an ideal lifestyle?" It is the act of choosing and shaping one's own path through space, creating a way of living that takes shape as a genuine reality rather than a mere fantasy.

NOT A HOTEL embraces this concept as its platform, and when we regard architecture not as a physical object but as a phenomenon, we quietly contemplate the question of how to live.

I hope this competition will serve as a starting point for unleashing the boundless imagination of young architects.