Digital Tea House Workshop - Summer 2010 Digital Fabrication Lab: Phil Anzalone, Brigette Borders Project: Design and build a tea house at Tokyo University using parametric design and digital fabrication methods
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Digital Tea House Fabrication Lab
The tea ceremony in Japan is both a timeless tradition as well as a flexible and contemporary practice. This dichotomy offered a rich platform for experimentation with form while holding true to the highly specific spatial constraints of the tea ceremony. Our group of eight students started the project in New York, conducting research and testing formal and tectonic approaches, before heading to Tokyo for a two-week charette where the design was finalized, fabricated, and assembled on the Tokyo University campus. From a simple formal typology based on a two-tatami tea room, we created a parametric model using Rhinoceros and Grasshopper. The parametric model allowed us to generate and test many configurations of the overall form, opacity, and sufrace treatments of the tea house based on arrangements of the ceremony elements. The final design creates an intimate space while still being largely transparent to the outside. Milled plywood pieces are put together into large components for quick assembly and disassembly through bolted connections. The GSAPP tea house, along with two tea houses built by University of Tokyo students, were exhibited for one day of critique, and an afternoon of tea ceremonies in each. They were then disassembled for transport to future exhibition sites, the first being in Tokyo in Fall 2010.
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Floor plan. An inner and outer wall of panels at varying orientations and densities deďŹ ne an inner tea room space and separate entries for host and guest. Parts of the ceremony become attractor points in Grasshopper, affecting various qualities of the space. Assembly sequence
Plans. Top: sub-floor structure connecting the columns to the floor structure. Above: Fabric roof connections.
Cut sheets for plywood components (L to R): floor, bench, columns, and wall panels. Tea ceremony
Overall assembly isometric.
Our tea master, a relative of one of the University of Tokyo students, preparing and serving cold tea in our tea house. Left: the tea master loved the space, and took a break to enjoy tea herself. Right: serving Toru Hasegawa’s parents.