BIG Completes Rammed Earth Villas on Remote Japanese Island

Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has completed NOT A HOTEL Setouchi, a set of three luxury villas on the remote Japanese island of Sagishima. The villas—named 180, 270, and 360 after their panoramic views—are built using rammed earth, an ancient technique using soil sourced on-site. Spread across a 30,000-square-meter plot on the island's southwestern cape, the project includes an oceanside restaurant and private beach. Each four-bedroom villa features an open-plan interior, with bathrooms and storage tucked into pods with skylights. Rooftops are clad in low-reflective solar tiles inspired by traditional Japanese roofs, while glass facades reinterpret shoji screens and black slate floors echo tatami mats. The villas are the firm's first completed buildings in Japan. Bjarke Ingels described the archipelago as "like a Japanese landscape painting" and the project as an "architectural adventure."