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Wabi-Sabi Teahouse

Scene Architect

SAVE SUBMISSION
Silver
Silver
Ren Dong
Ren Dong
Ren Dong
Ren Dong

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Cultural Space
6.93
7.20
7.33
7.14
7.15
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Cultural Space of the Year
6.94
7.30
7.41
7.28
7.23
Client
Mr. Kong
Floor area
136 ㎡
Completion
2020
Furniture

Wabi-sabi Teahouse is a space that conveys traditional Chinese tea culture, sitting at the corner of a high-rise building in a bustling block of ancient capital Xi’an. The design team created a retreat that soothes contemporary urbanites’ restlessness and immerses them in a traditional slow lifestyle through tea culture.

Innovation:  
The main space is located on the second floor of the building. On the first floor, the designers set a dark-toned staircase and Zen micro landscapes to guide people to walk upstairs. The deliberately darkened hue and the carefully designed lighting lead visitors to move upwards whilst gradually calming their mind in this process.  

Creativity:
The forms and furnishings in the second floor space are simplified, which responds to the traditional Chinese philosophy of “Wu Wei” (means “inaction”). The design team employed contemporary design languages to present traditional Oriental scenes. Appropriate blank surfaces and areas leave the space more possibilities. “We insisted on simple and restrained design, for the purpose of activating the architectural space and life, ” the design team explained. 

Functionality:
Local recyclable materials such as manually charred wood, perforated cement blocks and coated steel panels were utilized, which produced a tranquil, quaint atmosphere while embodying the principle of sustainability in material use. The existing exterior windows of the architectural space are glazing curtain walls. The design team brought in linen curtains and stacked perforated cement blocks near the glazing windows, to isolate the modern interface and the outside noise while producing unique light and shadow effects in the interior.

Sustainability:
For light environment creation, the project brings in natural light, and adopts restrained lighting design. The dim environment relaxes visitors’ body and mind, and immerses them in enjoying tea and a slow-paced lifestyle rooted in traditional culture.

The lighting at the top of the staircase accents the unique round and triangular structures, seeming like daylight filtering into the building and also echoing the beneath round pool in the stairwell. Inspired by Crescent Moon Spring, a spring in a barren desert in Dunhuang, the small, delicate water landscape is a metaphor for vitality, and also implies that this space is a spiritual retreat in the urban concrete jungle, offering busy urbanites a destination to relax while revealing the vigorous vitality of traditional culture.