A new culture complex, NOT A MUSEUM, is scheduled to open in summer 2027 in the Tower Building of IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKYO. It is an interim use project led by NOT A CITY, a company in the NOTA group.
The project will use about 2,000 tsubo, from the 1st floor (excluding some stores) to the 4th floor of the Tower Building. This is the site of the former 帝国ホテルプラザ 東京, a commercial facility directly operated by Imperial Hotel, and the Tower Building is set to be demolished as part of its rebuilding. The space will operate as a culture complex for a limited period of about four years.
NOT A CITY will handle everything from planning and production to operation, not just the space design, together with SKWAT, a group launched around the architecture firm DAIKEI MILLS. The commercial facility closed in March 2024 after a history of about 40 years. The project gives the site a new role as a place where visitors can experience cutting-edge culture, such as art, design, and music, as it unfolds.
NOT A CITY also envisions new uses and purposes for unused urban and regional spaces and gives them form through creativity. One example is JAPA VALLEY TOKYO, a project in front of Yurakucho Station being carried out with Mitsubishi Estate and scheduled to open in spring 2027. Through NOT A HOTEL and NOT A HOUSE, the company creates new places, and the mobility of NOT A GARAGE connects them. The goal is to build towns where staying, living, and moving are connected seamlessly.
Concept
"CULTURE, IN THE MAKING."
NOT A MUSEUM is a place where visitors can experience cutting-edge culture as it happens. Art, books, music, fashion, cinema, and more mix, get tested, and keep changing. It is a culture complex where visitors experience that process itself as it unfolds. What they will find here is not a finished answer, but the moment when something new is born.
Project Overview
- Name: NOT A MUSEUM
- Location: Imperial Hotel Tower 1F to 4F, former 帝国ホテルプラザ 東京, 1-1-1 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
- Size: Approximately 2,000 tsubo
- Project period: Summer 2027 to March 2031 (about 4 years)
- Project owner: NOTA
- Planning, production, and operation: NOT A CITY and SKWAT
- Space design: DAIKEI MILLS and NOT A HOTEL ARCHITECTS
- Official website: http://notamuseum.jp
- Official X: https://x.com/nota_museum
- Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nota_museum
All CG renderings shown are artist's impressions of the completed project. The specifications above are subject to change.
Imperial Hotel
Imperial Hotel opened in 1890 as "Japan's state guest house" and is one of the country's leading long-established luxury hotels. It stands next to Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace, with easy access to Ginza and Marunouchi, and offers refined hospitality shaped by more than 130 years of history.
Comment from Imperial Hotel
The 帝国ホテルプラザ 東京, which ended operations in March 2024, opened in 1983 as a gathering place for luxury brands. This place has presented the fashion and culture of each era. While carrying on that history, it will now be given new life as NOT A MUSEUM. We have great expectations that it will once again become a facility that presents the culture of the present moment.
SKWAT
Comment from Keisuke Nakamura, head of SKWAT
It is "time," as an asset, that is the most important element in inheriting the history of this place and building new culture on top of it. How should that time be interpreted and expressed? The answer is packed into NOT A MUSEUM. There is no completion. We will keep weaving it together, all of us.
About JAPA VALLEY TOKYO
JAPA VALLEY is the first art, commercial, and hospitality complex created by Pharrell Williams and NIGO®, and is a joint project with NOT A HOTEL. Inspired by California's Napa Valley, it replaces "winemaking" with "the craftsmanship of Japanese sake masters" and reinterprets the tourism model from the perspective of craftsmanship. Centered on the sake that Pharrell Williams and NIGO® have developed over many years, it blends Japanese food and fashion culture, including a collaboration with the world-renowned artist KAWS, and aims to create a new tourism destination. It is scheduled to open in spring 2027.
- Official website: https://japavalley.com
- Official X: https://x.com/japavalley
- Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/japavalley
