Designed by: @tokujin_yoshiok

Captured by: @tokujin_yoshioka

Glass Tea House − KOU-AN made its debut at the 54th La Biennale di Venezia in 2011 and was later unveiled on the Seiryu-den stage at Tendai Sect Shoren-in in Kyoto. The installation revisits elements of Japanese culture through the traditions and ideas associated with the Japanese tea ceremony.

Japanese reverence for nature and the perception of energy are embedded in the time-honoured practice of the tea ceremony. The project explores these ideas while moving beyond conventional definitions of the traditional tea house and its familiar architectural elements.

The Glass Tea House does not include traditional scrolls or ikebana, the Japanese flower arrangements commonly associated with these spaces. Instead, glass becomes the central architectural material, transforming the relationship between the structure, natural light and its surroundings.

Light passing through the installation creates a glistening surface, while a crystal prism sculpture refracts it into a rainbow of what the project describes as ‘flowers made of light’. In the absence of many physical decorative components, the installation is conceived as an architecture shaped primarily through glass, light and reflection.