Tai-an-Tea-House,
Kengo Kuma,
1573 AD.
In their book “Reminiscence”, Benedict Esche and Benedikt Hartl portray the special relationship between building and architect. There, pioneering architects have their say, writing about their architectural influence and its impact on their own work. Here, Kengo Kuma talks about the spiritual power of a Tai-an tea house.
“Tai-an is an extremely small room, measuring only 1.8 x 1.8 meters, yet it feels surprisingly spacious when you enter it and kneel down on the tatami mat. I was able to learn a lot from this mystery for my architectural work and over the years it has become the anchor point of my career. The surprising slenderness of the walls is just one example. The outer shell, consisting of a simple interlocking bamboo structure covered with clay and interwoven with textile, is only 4 cm thick. Today, not even the most talented craftsman can realize such a slender wall. And it is precisely the slenderness of the perimeter that, despite the unusual narrowness and the very small window, does not make us feel cramped. There are no constraints, which makes the issue of slenderness extremely important. Looking at Tai-an, I discovered in this slender wall a richness of warm-looking textures combined in it, created by the mixing of large quantities of straw by the architect Sen-No-Rikyu.
Never before have I seen such a wall design in which small white dots of straw spread themselves across a black panel. This wall is more textile or plant than earthen wall and thus encloses people in a naturally warm and pleasant way. The architect Gottfried Semper was deeply fascinated by the textile architectures of the nomads and saw them as the origin of architecture. Tai-an is not a mobile nomad tent, but was nevertheless constructed in a textile-like form. In addition, the house as a plant transports the visitor to a forest-like place where, the longer you stay, you feel a deep affinity with nature and can even sense the rustling and rustling of the leaves. My greatest wish is to recreate a spiritual moment like the one I experienced in Tai-an.”
You can find more information about the book here