Why Modern?

We ultimately decided not to build a traditional Japanese tea house. There are a number of reasons for this. These include the need to fit in with the surrounding suburban American architecture, and our desire to create something new and different.

Modern architecture is the best way to achieve this goal. There is significant overlap with traditional Japanese design, including simplicity, spareness, and a connection with nature. There are also a number of recent examples of architects who have combined the two. For example, Shigeru Uchida's tea houses:


These give the impression of openness and transparency, while still maintaining the feeling of enclosure. The glow that they give off in the dark also ads to their attractiveness as a landscape feature.

Another unusual and creative space is Toyo Ito's 2003 Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in London. This space, with its random solid and glass panels, is well connected to the exterior and has ample natural lighting:


Finally, we draw inspiration from the Farnsworth house of Mies Van der Rohe:



The simplicity and elegance of this design shares much in common with traditional Japanese architecture, though it is done using glass and steel rather than wood, bamboo and stone.

With these ideas, we set out to find an architect to help us build our tea house.

Origins

Where did we get the idea to build a tea house? In 2002 we traveled to China, spending most of the time in Shanghai. But we did take a trip to the historical city of Hangzhou and spent two days there. Hangzhou is famous for its lake, and the tea grown in the misty hills just outside the city. Around the like there are many tea houses, which contribute to the slow pace and relaxed atmosphere of the city. In fact, the residents of Hangzhou rise much later than in Shanghai, which is bustling well before 6 a.m. everyday of the week.

The tea houses are casual, and one can order tea for a couple of dollars. It includes as many refills of hot water that the leaves can take, and numerous tea house snacks like dried fruits and preserved eggs. Customers generally stay for hours and play cards or mahjong. This lifestyle has a real attractive quality that we wanted to take home with us.






In Japan the tea house (third picture) has a completely different quality. It is generally a very formal place, and usually much smaller than the Chinese version. It also gives the sensation of calmness, or time standing still. I think this is achieved through the connection with nature, because they are generally in the middle of a formal garden, and cannot really be closed off to their surroundings.










In fact, the traditional Japanese home (last picture) really captures some qualities of both the Chinese and Japanese tea houses. They have the functionality of the former and the simplicity and connection to nature of the latter. This is probably the closest to what we hope to achieve.

The Setting

We diverge from the discussion about the tea house to present some background on the setting for its construction. This will be helpful in understanding its function and ultimately to determine whether it has been successful.




Bethesda is an unincorporated suburb of Washington DC, just a couple of miles from the DC border. The town was quite small until after WWII, when growth really took off. As a result the dominant housing type are colonial houses built very quickly after the war. They are typically of masonry construction, and have three bedrooms (one very small), living, dining and a small galley kitchen. During the recent housing boom, many of the houses have been torn down to make room for McMansions, but most often owners have chosen to add onto their homes. We have take this approach in attempting to turn a solid but relatively charmless house into something a little more interesting, and perhaps add a little variety to the street scene (I once made the remark to one of the neighbors that I don't like colonials, which from the expression on her face, I realized immediately was the wrong thing to say. I really meant that it would be nice to have some choice besides colonial).
So we have added onto the house twice, and changed the roof line a bit, and tried to give the house a little of the arts and crafts look (probably only partially successfully). The front (upper right) is perhaps more successful, in part because the landscaping has taken well. Since this 2004 picture, the shrubs have grown substantially, giving the visitors to the house something more to focus on than just a lawn and cars lined along the street. The rear addition, while very functional, is less successful. This is partially because the addition isn't really connected well with the existing house. More work will be needed here eventually.
In the rear, the scene is less inviting. This is in part because many of the shrubs have not done well. The soil is not well drained, and in the Summer it is mostly shaded by large trees which are mostly in neighbors yards. The view from the house, is therefore not terribly interesting, and does not inspire one to venture outside. Visible in the third picture is a very unattractive fence, constructed in four sections by four different neighbors. Beyond the fence you can see one neighbors dilapidated garden shed, and less visible (from this photo) are rear additions on four houses, all finished with either vinyl or aluminum. A simple solution to this problem would be a high wall or hedge. Backyard walls or fences are limited to 6 feet in our neighborhood, and going higher could never completely block the view of vinyl. A hedge would take many years to grow. But the main objections that we have to this approach is that they are: 1. typical and uninteresting and 2. do not draw you out into the space. No matter what type of screen you put in the back, you end up with an uninviting and ultimately little used space, as seen in the fourth photo.

Introduction

Nearly five years into the Bethesda Tea House project and we have finally decided that we need to write a blog about it. This is probably one of the most unusual residential design and construction projects, so it really needs to be written about. While we still have hopes that it will be successful, we certainly have made a number of mistakes, as will soon be described.

The idea for the project really started in 2002 when we (Sara and Andy) started talking about what to do about the use of space in our backyard. We have always wanted a yard with a more courtyard type feeling, but in suburban Washington, D.C., zoning laws really won't allow for putting up a high wall around the yard. We realized that an alternative solution would be to put a small building at the back end of the yard to create a similar feeling. And our interest in Japanese tea houses had been on-going for some time. But we didn't really want a traditional Japanese design, but rather something very modern with perhaps just a suggestion of Japan. In the next few weeks, we will describe the details of each stage of the project.