Ace Hotel Kyoto

The first Ace hotel in Asia is the Ace Hotel Kyoto, designed by Kengo Kuma and Commune Design. (We won’t be offended if you stop reading right there, and go straight to selecting your dates.) Kuma’s primary contribution as architect was his powerful revision of an early modernist telephone exchange by Tetsuro Yoshida, a departure from the minimalist-luxe concrete symphonies we’re used to. And Commune and Kuma together were responsible for adapting Ace’s eclectic, bohemian aesthetic to Kyoto, paying tribute to this historic city without falling into shoji-screen clichés.

What they’ve created could hardly be more impressive, and is a reminder that the Ace hotels don’t chase trends so much as establish them. The rooms, as always, stop well short of ostentatious luxury, aiming instead at a young, creative audience, the sort of people who’d know what to do with modernist furniture, an in-room turntable, and maybe an acoustic guitar.

And the public spaces, again in typical Ace style, are every bit as important — and inspiring — as the rooms. Here you’ll find the first Stumptown Coffee shop in Japan, as well as a typically versatile lobby space and two restaurants: Mr. Maurice, an Italian-American restaurant with a rooftop cocktail bar, and Piopiko, a taco bar and cocktail lounge by Los Angeles chef Wes Avila.