Teahouse in the Czech Republic by Grau Architects

The pavilion was designed by Grau Architects along with student participants in the Mood for Wood workshop. The teahouse is set alongside a lake in Český Těšín, a town in the district of Karviná, located in the Czech Republic's Moravian-Silesian Region on the border with Poland. 

© Matej Hakár

Modern teahouse

Grau Architects based its approach on traditional Japanese teahouse architecture, which it implemented with modern means of expression. In this the architects worked with a simple design principle, in which timber elements are joined to form a complex static structure. The pavilion itself can comfortably accommodate six people sitting on their knees around the low table during the tea ceremony.  

Several traditional tea ceremony rules found expression in the design. For example, to enter the teahouse, visitors have to stoop to pass under the building's lowest horizontal beam – a reference to the niriji-guchi door, a symbol for the equality of all participants in the ceremony. At the same time entering the interior in this way focuses attention on the surface of the lake. 

The pavilion, which has a 3 x 3 m footprint, has a height of 4 m, the effective length of the squared spruce slats and the maximum permissible height of the pavilion. The raw timber elements form a contrast to the panels of white fabric, which convey a feeling of peace and harmony while not distracting from the ceremony itself. Further materials concern spruce timber for the flooring, and birch plywood and roof geotextile. The open entrance allows glimpses into the interior, enabling passers-by to see the tea ceremony from the outside. The teahouse is multifunctional in character in that it can also be used as a summer pavilion with views of nature.