A breathing Japanese tearoom

F.A.D.S. + Fujiki Studio designed a temporary installation to use as a Japanese tearoom. The hut is made of CLT and plastic materials using digital fabrication technology, making it appear as though the installation ‘breathes’.

The installation was exhibited during Echigo-tsumari Art Triennale 2018 in Japan. The theme of the exhibition was “how to overcome the concept of homogeneous space which was dominant in the 20th century”. In addition, the project was part of the sub-exhibition “Hojoki Shiki in 2018: The Universe of Ten Foot Square Huts by Architects and Artists”. The medieval text Hojoki (translated as “An Account of My Hut”, or “The Ten-Foot Square Hut”) served as an inspiration to reinterpret a “hojo” (ten-foot square hut).

The installation takes the shape of a “two-tatami space” (a Japanese room measuring system, i.e. how many tatami (woven mats) fit into a room) within a ten-foot square hut. Both constructions are made with digitally fabricated spruce CLT panels, constructed in an irregular pattern. Between the two skeletal layers, plastic sheets are placed, so-called “breathing pleats”, which move if someone enters the hut, making it seem like the hut is breathing.

The studio says, “It is a distorted homogeneous space to create irregularities by the random pattern of the skeleton and proposed an art-tecture (architecture) with many holes which are open and close as necessary to communicate with the outside like living things.”

During the exhibition period, a workshop was held on how to make Japanese sweets, as well as a tea ceremony for children. The project won the Silver A’ Design Award 2019.

Photos: Masahiro Hoshida / Fujiki Studio (via V2com)