In the novel Dance Dance Dance by Murakami Haruki, there is a Dolphin Hotel which the protagonist stayed in, described by the author as “a sad-looking hotel. … It looked sad, like a three-legged black dog, drenched in December rain.” And further … like a “miserable museum.”

In their interesting blog that tries to visualise buildings and spaces found in famous novels, architects Kei Hiratsuka and Mie Takagi of POMU, imagine the Dolphin to be an awkward hulking building, with dark grey off-form concrete facades not quite as perfect as Tadao Ando’s; partially lifted off the ground on columns to hold a parking space not quite as dynamic as Kikutake Kiyonori’s piloti space; with only a few small windows on its facades like a museum not quite as transparent as the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum. (their illustration above)