Taichung's historic Central District has a striking new place to sleep. Oku Hotel Taichung occupies the shell of the old Sakurada Department Store, a local landmark from the city's Japanese-era past, and Studio HBA Singapore has turned it into an 80-room boutique hotel that leans hard into glamour rather than gutting the building's history.
The concept is called 'The Department of Travellers' Tales', and it plays out like this: the hotel is staged as the private collection of a fictional globetrotter, with objects, textures and motifs from around the world layered through the rooms. It's a neat fit for a former department store — a place once built around displaying desirable things.
The centrepiece is a triple-height lobby with soaring arches and metallic finishes, arranged around Ailìse Bar's multi-storey liquor tower that climbs through the middle of the atrium. The bar itself has an emerald-green fluted counter with a white stone top, velvet stools, mirrored surfaces and sculptural lighting — peak Art Deco, and presumably a reason to book even if you're not staying over.
The design language throughout borrows from French Art Deco but filtered through a modern lens: geometric patterns, fluted metal, bronze accents, decorative screening, and a palette of navy, peacock green, warm gold and polished stone. Herringbone timber floors and velvet upholstery keep it feeling like a European residence with an old-Taichung streak.
Guestrooms run with the same story. Floor-to-ceiling windows framed by heavy velvet drapes, bespoke furniture, geometric wall detailing and gold accents, plus bathrooms with marble, brass-framed glass partitions and freestanding bathtubs. It's designed to feel residential rather than corporate — more apartment-in-Paris than airport hotel.
Why does this matter for travellers? Taichung has long played second fiddle to Taipei, but its Central District is mid-revitalisation, with heritage buildings being repurposed rather than demolished. A hotel like this gives you a genuine reason to base yourself in the old core instead of passing through on the way to Sun Moon Lake or the Gao Mei wetlands. If you like design-led hotels with an actual narrative — think of it as Taiwan's answer to the adaptive-reuse boutique trend sweeping Asia — this is one to pencil in for your next island trip.
