HITTING BACK: Bottega Veneta is standing up for Japanese Modernist architecture. On Friday, the Italian luxury label posted on its Web site an initiative aimed at saving Tokyo’s Hotel Okura from a brutal renovation. Bottega Veneta invited site visitors to post their own images of the Hotel Okura on its homepage as well as across its social networks.
Bottega Veneta creative director Tomas Maier personally promoted the project. Last October, the designer took a trip to Japan to visit sites facing dramatic changes, due to a government decision to overhaul some of the country’s Modernist buildings for the 2020 Olympic Games.
“I am personally very fond of the beautiful Hotel Okura, which is recognized as one of the greatest [examples of] so called Japanese Modernism architecture, built after the 1950s,” Maier said. “It is crucial to make sure these great buildings are preserved in a way that respects how they were initially composed and thus maintains their integrity in order to solidify their value in the passing down of this heritage for the future generations to enjoy, ultimately gaining recognition not only nationally in Japan but worldwide.”