Text description provided by the architects. Drinking tea is one of the most featured activity which can fuse the functional requirements with the sense of ritual in Chinese life. In China, tea is considered as a belt that can fulfill spiritual communication between human and nature, it means that “a person stands among the woods and grass” in ancient Chinese. Tea is one symbol of Chinese Zen life, so a teahouse is not just a place for people to have tea, but also has some profound significance. We can gain the generosity of spirit in a confined space once we start to enjoying a cup of tea.

Concept

999 wooden sticks arranged by an identical center in the rectangular room, and they are cut out of an oval space. In this case, every stick has its own different angle and length, and the available space has a clear outline. These sticks accomplish a gradual transition from the rectangular room (size: 3.8m*4.7m) to an oval activity space. The teahouse contains two geometry shapes and three different densities. All these designs display a great orderliness and refinement. When the sunlight is reflected from the cut surface of every stick, we will see a rhythmic change in different sizes of circles.

On one side of the room, a round window faces the urban road, while a square doorway is adjacent to a garden on the other side. That is because the designer was inspired by an old Chinese saying—“The circle has a tread of auto-rotating , and the square has a tread of stable”. The specificity of the space brings the people strong psychological hints. The theme of the teahouse is “ONE”. “ONE” and“RESTART” are two words of the space where we could reach a higher state of consciousness.

Concept

It took workers three months to renovate the house. In the teahouse, everyone will get spiritually reborn by tea.

© Zhigang Lu

• Architects

  MINAX Architects

• Location

  1 Tong Xin Lu, Hongkou Qu, Shanghai Shi, China

• Category

  Hospitality Architecture

• Architect in Charge

  Zhigang Lu

• Design Team

  Congyi Huang, Li Liu, Like Niu, Zhirui Liu

• Area

  17.8 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Zhigang Lu