Bridging Tea House

An ambitious master plan was designed for the construction of a multipurpose modern city in Jinhua. In the spirit of this plan, the local government commissioned a teahouse to be built beside a pond in a park next to the river that runs through the city. The concept was reworked formally to create a structure that also serves as a mirror—the lower part reflects the upper part, thus producing an effect of continuous space. Our first concept was totally open and functioned as a mask in relation to the neighboring pavilions. Working in collaboration with local engineers, a structure was suggested in which different platforms would be constructed for diverse uses. The translation of this suggestion gave birth to a building that contains a series of spaces on diverse levels that create privacy and intimacy, micro-atmospheres that generate distinct visual experiences for the teahouse’s visitors. The final sculptural object resulted from the unification, within a single contemporary form, of two traditional typologies derived from the gardens of ancient China: the bridge and the teahouse.