TEA HOUSE: WOODS GERRY
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, RI
2013
Thesis Project: Yoshihiro Sergel
Artist In Residency Installation
12’-4.5” x 12’-4.5” x 8’-0” interlocking Hinoki cypress structure with (8) sliding string doors, (4) hand pressed paper tatami, earthen concrete hearth, and paper roof tiles.
The concept of tea stemmed from my own everyday practice of tea. Every day I make tea. Making tea creates a space for focus and contemplation. I believe the art of tea, cha-no-yu, as it is known in Japan, lies within its thoughtful making and enjoyment. For some Japanese tea masters, cha-no-yu embodies a state of mind or transcendence. In a way, drinking tea is an act of purification, that transcends bodily sensation and affects the mind and ultimately the spirit. This simple transcendence is something that can occur everyday.
The tea house is designed specifically for its use: at its core is an earthen-concrete hearth to house fire and a kettle of water for the preparation of tea, and on this central axis, opens a window to the sky, framing a sense of the beyond. From this core extends an interlaid timber structure, lap-joined in a pinwheel fashion. Wood slats encircle the hearth creating the floor surface upon which a layer of 1/2” thick recycled paper tatami mats provide space for seating. These hand-pressed tatami flooring emulate the traditional Japanese floor treatment that require the removal of shoes to access an elevated surface for the tea ceremony.
Thanks to: Kyna Leski (Thesis Advisor); Installation Assistance: Diana Mangaser, Jeffrey Lewinski, Kyle Dell’Aquila
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, RI
2013
Thesis Project: Yoshihiro Sergel
Artist In Residency Installation
12’-4.5” x 12’-4.5” x 8’-0” interlocking Hinoki cypress structure with (8) sliding string doors, (4) hand pressed paper tatami, earthen concrete hearth, and paper roof tiles.
The concept of tea stemmed from my own everyday practice of tea. Every day I make tea. Making tea creates a space for focus and contemplation. I believe the art of tea, cha-no-yu, as it is known in Japan, lies within its thoughtful making and enjoyment. For some Japanese tea masters, cha-no-yu embodies a state of mind or transcendence. In a way, drinking tea is an act of purification, that transcends bodily sensation and affects the mind and ultimately the spirit. This simple transcendence is something that can occur everyday.
The tea house is designed specifically for its use: at its core is an earthen-concrete hearth to house fire and a kettle of water for the preparation of tea, and on this central axis, opens a window to the sky, framing a sense of the beyond. From this core extends an interlaid timber structure, lap-joined in a pinwheel fashion. Wood slats encircle the hearth creating the floor surface upon which a layer of 1/2” thick recycled paper tatami mats provide space for seating. These hand-pressed tatami flooring emulate the traditional Japanese floor treatment that require the removal of shoes to access an elevated surface for the tea ceremony.
Thanks to: Kyna Leski (Thesis Advisor); Installation Assistance: Diana Mangaser, Jeffrey Lewinski, Kyle Dell’Aquila
INDEX
TEA HOUSE
Manitoga
Spring Street Garden
Woods Gerry
RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL
Lake Cabin
Rowhouse
Live/Work
Studio 2Q
CURATORIAL
Artist In Vacancy
Ann Street Gallery
EXHIBITIONS & WORKSHOPS
Dia: Chelsea
Bauhaus Dessau
Dia: Beacon
Arts Letters & Numbers
COMMISSIONS & COLLABORATIONS
Codas
Dance Platform
Winter Solstice Bells
Hako Sushi
Bubuto
Salo
TEA HOUSE
Manitoga
Spring Street Garden
Woods Gerry
RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL
Lake Cabin
Rowhouse
Live/Work
Studio 2Q
CURATORIAL
Artist In Vacancy
Ann Street Gallery
EXHIBITIONS & WORKSHOPS
Dia: Chelsea
Bauhaus Dessau
Dia: Beacon
Arts Letters & Numbers
COMMISSIONS & COLLABORATIONS
Codas
Dance Platform
Winter Solstice Bells
Hako Sushi
Bubuto
Salo
Y S D M is the collaborative studio
of Yoshihiro Sergel & Diana Mangaser,
currently based in Newburgh, NY.
Our practice imagines design as a prismatic lens in which we integrate spatial awareness, architectural sensibility, and aesthetics into the structure of everyday environments we immerse ourselves and invite others to engage in.
Our work aims to mediate the oft divisive disciplinary separation between the speculative yet generative exercises of theoretical inquiry and the immediacy of praxis by undertaking the task of seeing such speculations through to built form.
By selecting to operate from a ground-up, environmentally, economically, and socially conscious framework, we leverage constraints as part of a framework from which we continuously develop our position and conceptual lines of study.
As of late, our interest lies in tea culture; intersections between cultural/traditional materials and methods with contemporary forms; what a regenerative architecture may come to be.
of Yoshihiro Sergel & Diana Mangaser,
currently based in Newburgh, NY.
Our practice imagines design as a prismatic lens in which we integrate spatial awareness, architectural sensibility, and aesthetics into the structure of everyday environments we immerse ourselves and invite others to engage in.
Our work aims to mediate the oft divisive disciplinary separation between the speculative yet generative exercises of theoretical inquiry and the immediacy of praxis by undertaking the task of seeing such speculations through to built form.
By selecting to operate from a ground-up, environmentally, economically, and socially conscious framework, we leverage constraints as part of a framework from which we continuously develop our position and conceptual lines of study.
As of late, our interest lies in tea culture; intersections between cultural/traditional materials and methods with contemporary forms; what a regenerative architecture may come to be.