VOL.3
A new trend in tea rooms and offices

2022 / 9 / 18

A company active on the world stage requested us to build a teahouse to educate its employees in the "spirit of Zen."

We proposed a new style of table tea room that can be used as both a traditional tea room and a meeting space, contrasting the themes of "tradition and innovation" in the spaces on either side of the entrance hall after getting off the elevator.
The entrance hall is designed with a contrasting dry landscape garden with calm stones and flowing water stones on both sides, creating an image of "stillness and movement" and "yin and yang", and is equipped with a traditional tea room and a modern table tea room.The entrance hall is designed with a contrasting dry landscape garden with calm stones and flowing water stones on both sides, creating an image of "stillness and movement" and "yin and yang", and is equipped with a traditional tea room and a modern table tea room.

Shizu's traditional teahouse

The traditional tea room is a space with a large 8 tatami mat room and a small 3 tatami mat room with a water room. The large room has a transom with openwork carvings and Edo-style paper screens with a flowing water pattern, inspired by the "Banquet of Curved Water" in the "Lanting Preface" by the calligrapher Wang Xizhi. There is also a Zen space for meditation on the veranda.

The 3-tatami-mat tea room has a hollow, a nijiriguchi and a noble entrance, and uses precious wood, such as pine-henboku alcove pillars and muro-henboku central pillars, each of which has a special meaning. In a Japanese-style room, the ceiling is a particularly important element in the spatial composition, so we express it with a coffered ceiling, decorative log sloped ceiling and wickerwork ceiling.

To enter the garden, cross a stone bridge, walk over stepping stones and steps, go through a branch door and arrive at the waiting area where you can sit and purify your hands and mind at a stone basin before taking your seat.

The teahouse roof is made of traditional cypress bark, a traditional roof finish that is now only seen in the restoration of shrines and temples.

Modern table tea room

The modern table tea room can also be used as a meeting room, so the seating is divided into three sections, partitioned with bamboo fittings so that you don't have to worry about being seen by others. In the rear room, there is a standing basin inspired by the Zen term round triangle square, so that you can purify your mind and body before taking your seat.

In particular, the table seats here are a great place to take a break and have a cup of tea before a business meeting, as it is a great way to understand and connect with each other.

Long ago, Rikyu deepened his ties with Nobunaga and Hideyoshi through tea ceremonies and became deeply involved in politics, and there was a time when warlords in the Sengoku period all enjoyed the tea ceremony, which helped them in their strategies. I believe that even in today's business, the significance of the tea ceremony as a strategic tool will continue to grow.

To the world with a Zen spirit

The coronavirus has dramatically changed the way we work.

With more work being done online from home and fewer face-to-face meetings, connections with others have become weaker.

When going to the office becomes more about meeting people than just going to work, the role of the tea room in the office expands greatly.

By turning the space where there are fewer people working there into a teahouse, which becomes a place for learning and interaction, and by donning the armor of traditional Japanese culture with a Zen spirit, we will see an increase in businessmen who are needed around the world, which will lead to the dissemination of Japanese culture to the world.

Tea rooms are truly a new trend in the office.

Cape Copanello on the toes of the Italian peninsula.

Here, the Gatti family runs a farm that grows olives in their natural state without using any pesticides or fertilizers. Introducing the rare olive oil that is made by squeezing the early picked olives of this rare Gatti family at low temperature.

ガッティ家のオリーブオイル

Tthe "Hokuso" area has been blessed with the abundant water of Kasumigaura and the Tone River since ancient times.

Rice has been cultivated since the Edo period, and in the olden days, rice was supplied to Edo via the Tone River.

We are reclaiming fallow fields in this area and working to regenerate delicious rice and paddy fields.

北総のお米「美人米」

The delicious rice grown in the Hokuso region has brought a lot of wealth to the region. The homes of rice farmers in the area are also very valuable from an architectural point of view.

Unfortunately, the Hokuso area is also experiencing population outflow and aging, and as a result, these high-value buildings are also being devastated.

We regenerate these old folk houses with our knowledge and know-how as an architect and provide them as accommodation facilities.

北総の古民家ステイ