M House
Tokyo
2021
2021
The client, who has spent many years outside Japan, already has an apartment outfitted in the European style. This project was a redesign of the next-door apartment as a tea house for the ryūrei style of the Japanese tea ceremony (which is conducted using a Western-style table and chairs). To make sure the tea ceremony can be performed with absolute authenticity, the space was fitted out with a waiting area, a narrow little tea house garden, a stone wash basin, a tea preparation room, counter seats for multicourse kaiseki meals and a kitchen.
The terrace has been transformed into a garden containing a small shrine. I came up with the kanji name Shanerusha for the shrine because the client’s wife likes to dress in Chanel. (The four characters mean something like “shrine that rejects the din of the world.”) I gave the name Jakuruan (literally, “hermitage of flowing peace”) to the tea house itself to evoke an image of a serene and tranquil place. This name too is a good fit with the client’s wife, who is a very quiet person.
The kaiseki seating area can also be used for counter cooking. The space was consciously conceived as a place for socializing centered around tea, as well as somewhere where overseas guests can encounter and experience a different culture.
We also designed all the furniture. The couch in the waiting room is of particular note. With its combination of thick acrylic boards and sheet glass, it is a deliberately startling work of synthesis that brings together very different transparent materials.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
The terrace has been transformed into a garden containing a small shrine. I came up with the kanji name Shanerusha for the shrine because the client’s wife likes to dress in Chanel. (The four characters mean something like “shrine that rejects the din of the world.”) I gave the name Jakuruan (literally, “hermitage of flowing peace”) to the tea house itself to evoke an image of a serene and tranquil place. This name too is a good fit with the client’s wife, who is a very quiet person.
The kaiseki seating area can also be used for counter cooking. The space was consciously conceived as a place for socializing centered around tea, as well as somewhere where overseas guests can encounter and experience a different culture.
We also designed all the furniture. The couch in the waiting room is of particular note. With its combination of thick acrylic boards and sheet glass, it is a deliberately startling work of synthesis that brings together very different transparent materials.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
