The Responsive Tea Room
Designing playfulness into the created spaces
MA Interior and spatial design HIROSHI ITO
The Responsive Tea Room Designing playfulness into the created spaces
Hiroshi Ito
Course director : Dr. Kenneth Wilder Tutor : Robin Jenkins
Chelsea College of Art and Design 16 John Islip Street London SW1P 4JU
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Table of contents
List of Figures
Introduction
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Figure1. Tea making
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Concept
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Figure2. Tea room interior
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Diagram
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Figure3. In Praise of Shadows
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System Design
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Figure4. hResponsive tea room (kinetic ceiling)
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Techinical part
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Figure5. Responsive tea room Interior
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Photography
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Figure6. Responsive tea room’s structure
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Bibliography
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Figure7. Tensegrity model designed by Hiroshi Ito and Shari Shari Shari
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Figure8. Kinetic roof 3D image
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Figure9. Responsive tea room’s plan
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Figure10. Pressure sensor on timber batten
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Figure11. Pressure sensor diagram
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Figure12. Responsive tea room (kinetic floor)
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Figure13. Sensing experiments
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Figure14. Actuating experimets
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Figure15. Responsive tea room(Affordance designed floor)
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Figure16. Calcurating density by using Rhinocerous & Grasshopper
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Figure17. Polyform hexagonal panels
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Figure18. Laser cutting
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Figure19. Polyform hexagonal panel - soft
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Figure20. Polyform hexagonal panel - hard
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Figure21. Children play in the responsive tea room
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22.23.24.
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Figure25. Providing Japanese tea to visitor
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1. Introduction
2. Concept
Tea Ceremony The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the tea ceremony. “Our society tends to dismiss play for adults. Play is perceived as unproductive, petty or even a guilty pleasure. The notion is that once we reach adulthood, it is time to get serious and between personal and professional responsibilities, there is no time to play”. (Tartakovsky, M, 2012.) It is this paper’s position that playfulness is essential for creative civilisation and spatial design is not just about functionality, but should also be playful, curious and exciting. The central aim of this projsct is to design playfulness into created spaces in order to provide playful opportunities for not only children, but also adults through exploring the concept of playful space and experience.
Figure1. Tea making , http://chroma.to/photos/5728479, 12 / Apr. 2013
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Tea Ceremony Room
Re-designing Japanese Tea Room
In Japanese tradition, architectural spaces designed to be used for tea ceremony (chanoyu) gatherings are known as chashitsu ( literally "tea rooms").
Using the kinetic roofing technology, we (I collaborated with Shari
The room is Intentionally made by minimal material and design.
Shari Shari1) present an attempt to reconcile contemporary lighting modulation technology and the aesthetically dark shadowy environment of the Japanese tea room.
Shari Shari Shari1 ; A group of international architects based in the UK via Japan, China.
Figure2. Tea room interior , http://www.uetoku.com/visit/kotoin2.html , 12 / Apr. 2013
Figure3. In Praise of Shadows , http://ultrastaff.jp/10799424 , 12 / Apr. 2013
Junichiro Tanizaki (1933) Traditionally a tea room is a place constructed of shadows unsuited to lighting. Jun’ichiro Tanizaki famously claimed in his essay “In Praise of Shadows” that western lighting modulation might be incapable of lighting a Japanese room and incompatible with the darker Japanese aesthetic.
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Figure4. Responsive tea room (kinetic ceiling) , Author’s own , 20 / Feb. 2013
Figure5. Responsive tea room Interior, Author’s own , 20 / Feb. 2013
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3. Diagram
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Shoji partition / solid
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Figure7.
Figure10.
Figure8.
Kinetic Tensegrity Roof Think, feel, breathe move; these are not normally things that a roof can do. However, com-
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bining the principles of tensegrity, or tensional integrity, and advanced materials as artificial
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muscle fibres I have created an ultra-light, malleable, and kinetic roof that can react and adapt to its inhabitants.
Shoji partition / window
Floor layout
Shoji partition / Nijiriguchi
Kinetic Tensegrity Roof Figure11.
Affordance Floor
Smart Floor build-up - 25mm Polyform
Using pressure sensors embedded underneath the floor the tea room acts as a machine
- 12mm plywood
which actively creates a new interplay. The sensors feel the position of the inhabitant and
- 20 x 20mm timber floor battens
feed this back to it’s brain. This is then fed back to the roof and interpreted, not only in to
- 14 No. of pressure sensitive sensors
appropriate shade, but into a new dynamic between light and shadows.”
Figure6. Responsive tea room’s structure , Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Signal 8
Figure6.
Shoji partition / solid
Figure9.
- Existing floor
Figure9. Responsive tea room’s plan , Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Figure7. Tensegrity model designed by Hiroshi Ito and Shari Shari Shari, Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Figure10. Pressure sensor on timber batten, Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Figure8. Kinetic roof 3D image , Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Figure11. Pressure sensor diagram , Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013 9
4. System Design
5. Technical Part
Responsive System Flow
Active Affordance One attempt is to design an object as an agent which feels-thinks-acts by itself
Floor’s Affordance
and also senses-calculates-actuates in real time. Users can participate the system through intuitive interfaces such as gesture based spatial embedded interface with image recognition which needs slight
Pressure by weight
Make a input threshold
awareness by user.
Figure13. Sensing experiments , Author’s own , 30 / Jan. 2013
Actuate tensegrity Kinetic Tensegrity Roof, which forms the roof of the tea room, changes light conditions in the tea room in response to users activity.
Change roof ‘s shape
Change the space and the amount of shadow Figure12. Responsive tea room (kinetic floor) , Author’s own , 20 / Feb. 2013
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Figure14. Actuating experimets, Author’s own , 30 / Jan 2013
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Passive Affordance
Computing & Digital Fabrication
Parametricism Rapid prototyping
Other attempt is to create an object which has pre-adjusting function, such as a different floor pattern capable of afford to human sitting down, or walk around as programed. Different pattern has different softness.
This will be realized by introducing the static structure Figure 17.
engraved on continuous material and optimizing its graphical pattern using the dynamic analysis so that it’s capable of controlling its touch and movement. This element forms the floor of the tea room. Figure15. Responsive tea room(Affordance designed floor) , Author’s own , 1 / Feb. 2013
Figure16. calcurating density by using Rhinocerous & Grasshopper , Author’s own , 1 / Feb. 2013
Figure 18.
Figure 19.
Figure 20.
Figure17. Polyform hexagonal panels , Author’s own , 1 / Feb. 2013 Figure18. Laser cutting , Author’s own , 29 / Jan. 2013 Figure19. Polyform hexagonal panel - soft, Author’s own , 29 / Jan. 2013 Figure20. Polyform hexagonal panel - hard, Author’s own , 29 / Jan. 2013
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6. Photography
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Figure25. Providing Japanese tea to visitor , Author’s own , 20 / Feb. 2013 23..
24.. Figure21. 22. 23. 24. Children play in the responsive tea room, Author’s own , 20 / Feb. 2013
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7. Bibliography
Tartakovsky, M(2012) The Importance of Play for Adults. Psych Central. [Internet] Available from <http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/11/15/the-importance-of-play-for-adults/> [Accesse 30 March 2013] Junâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ichirĹ?, T. (1977), translated by Thomas J. and Edward G., In praise of shadows, London: Vintage.
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