François Prost Captures Japan Roadside Love Hotels in Photos

Photographer François Prost has unveiled Love Hotel, a photo series capturing the exterior facades of Japan's love hotels during a road trip undertaken in 2023 from Tokyo to Shikoku Island. The collection focuses primarily on roadside architecture, showcasing faded signage and colorful facades that reflect a specific segment of Japanese popular culture. This visual documentation moves away from conventional depictions of Japan, offering instead a vernacular portrait that highlights the frequently overlooked design elements of these unusual establishments.

The series explores the architectural contrast between Japan's densely populated megacities and its orderly agricultural countryside through the prism of love hotel exteriors. These establishments, deeply rooted in Japanese popular culture, are designed to provide couples with private spaces away from the limited privacy found in many small family homes. By doing so, the photographer links distinctive architectural typologies with a broader cultural phenomenon centering on intimacy.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The facades feature colorful and peculiar designs that challenge conventional architectural aesthetics. Ranging from castles to boats and sea creatures, Japan's love hotels present some of the most unusual ornamental exteriors. These architectural choices serve as a lens through which to explore Japanese popular culture, framing love hotels within the wider context of the nation's vernacular architecture.

This article is part of designboom’s MODES OF HABITATION chapter, which explores how the spaces we inhabit reshape shared living and domesticity. The photography project is credited directly to François Prost.

Source: designboom