Shou Sugi Ban

Japanese architect and historian Terunobu Fujimori designed a tea house for “The Japanese House” exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London, being one of two 1:1 installations commissioned for the London show, alongside a replica of Moriyama House designed by Ryue Nishizawa.

  Fujimori assests that buildings can be made by non-professional people and the teahouse follows this principle. It was constructed by the hands of students and tutors from Kingston University, under the guidance of the London based Japanese architect Takeshi Hayatsu. The exterior cladding utilises Yakisugi, charred timber produced using the traditional Japanese charring technique. The charring workshop was held at the Weald and Downland living museum in West Sussex in January 2017. The structure was prefabricated at the University’s workshop. The bronze cast handles, ceramic lampshades, hearth, vase and plywood stools were also handmade by students from Kingston’s architecture, product and furniture design courses.

The Fujimori teahouse is part of a garden, an interpretation of a traditional Japanese tea garden, which represents the traditional form and arrangement closely linked with the ritual of the tea ceremony. The 16th century tea master Sen No Rikyu established three principles which Fujimori follows. A small, confined entry way, a small interior space, and a hearth containing fire in the room. Guests to the Fujimori designed teahouse are invited by the host to enter through a gate clad in charred timber, dividing the outer and inner territories. A narrow path leads to a water bowl and a lantern to wash hands before entering the teahouse.

When reaching the teahouse, which is elevated on chestnut stilts and oak beams, guests are asked to take off their shoes and enter from underneath via a ladder. The interior is 3 x 3 m, the size of four and half tatami mats, a typical size standardised 400 years ago in Japan. It is designed to accommodate six people, sitting, circling a central hearth. The structure does not follow certain Japanese traditions, such as the use of a tatami mat floor, shoji paper screens and Tokonoma, an alcove for ornamental artefacts. Instead guests sit on a plastered floor, facing a corner of the room, decorated with charcoal on the white plaster by Fujimori by himself, a ceramic vase and a lampshade made by the students lighting up a living flower in the room.

until 25 June 2017
Tea House
Designed and built by Terunobu Fujimori and Takeshi Hayatsu
The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London