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VOL.3
Tea Room at the Office

2022 / 9 / 18

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Office |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

A company active on the world stage asked us to build a tea room for employee education with a "Zen spirit.

We proposed a traditional tea room and a new style table tea room that could also be used as a meeting space, each with a contrasting theme of "tradition and innovation" in the space on either side of the entrance hall off the elevator.
The entrance hall is flanked on both sides by a traditional tea ceremony room and a modern table tea ceremony room, each with a contrasting karesansui (dry landscape) stone garden, based on the images of "stillness and movement" and "yin and yang" from the shinseki and nagasui (running water) stones. The entrance hall has a traditional tea ceremony room and a modern table tea ceremony room, both of which begin with a karesansui stone garden that contrasts with the "stillness and movement" and "yin and yang" images of the shinseki and running water stones on both sides of the hall.

Traditional Tea room

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Office |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The traditional tea room consists of a hansen (large room) of 8 tatami mats and a koma (small room) of 3 tatami mats with an attached mizuya (water closet). The koma has an openwork transom inspired by the Kyokusui no Banquet in the Preface to the Lanting Tea Ceremony by the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi, and Edo karakami shoji screens with a running water pattern.

The small 3-tatami-mat dai-me tea room has a doko, an overpass, and a ki-jinguchi, and uses pine-variety wood floor pillars and muro-variety wood middle pillars, each of which has its own meaning. In the Japanese-style room, the ceiling is a particularly important element in the spatial composition, and is expressed in the form of a coffered ceiling, a sloping ceiling with laminated logs, and an ajiro ceiling.

The open-air area is accessed by crossing a stone bridge, walking along stepping stones and steps, and passing through a doorway with branches to the waiting area, where visitors wash their hands and hearts before entering the room.

The roof of the teahouse is traditionally made of hinoki bark. The roof of the tea ceremony room has a traditional hinoki bark roofing, a traditional roof finish that is now only seen in restorations of shrines and temples.

Tea Room with a modern table

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Office |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The modern table tea room is also used as a meeting room, and is divided into three separate seating areas, each separated by woven bamboo fittings so as not to distract the guests' line of sight. In the Sarai-ma room, there is a standing Tsukubai, which is inspired by the Zen words Maru-Sanjaku-Shikaku (round, triangle, square), so that guests can purify their minds and bodies before entering the seating area.

In particular, the table seating here is also meant to allow time for mutual understanding and connection over a cup of tea and a break before a business meeting.

In the past, Rikyu spent time with Nobunaga and Hideyoshi at the tea ceremony to deepen their connection, which led to deep involvement in politics, and there was a time when generals in the Warring States period were aided in their strategies by enjoying the tea ceremony. In today's business world, the tea ceremony is becoming more and more significant as a strategic tool.

Tea Room to the world

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Office |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The way we work has changed dramatically in Covid-19. We work online and at home more and more, and we meet less and less in real life, so our connections with people have grown thin.

When the meaning of going to the office is more about meeting people than going to work, the role of the teahouse in the office is greatly expanded.

By transforming a space with fewer workers into a tea room, it becomes a place for learning and exchange, and by wearing the armor of traditional Japanese culture with a Zen spirit, the number of businesspeople needed around the world will increase, leading to the transmission of Japanese culture to the rest of the world.

The tea room is truly a new trend in the office.

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