Tea House
A friend, who is a connoisseur of fine Chinese Pu Erh tea, approached me to help him dream up a uniquely styled tea house for his property. He wanted it to have Japanese tea house aesthetics but infused with creative use of local and salvage materials and respectful ethics related to sustainability. The two of us dreamt up a Japanese Irimoya-style hipped gable roof but with a West Coast whimsical twist, combined with highly durable and extremely sustainable light straw/clay walls and local clay interior plaster, with doors, windows and floors made from Pender-Island sustainably harvested or salvaged Douglas fir and local, sustainable shyousugiban-yaki burnt cedar siding.
I absolutely love this client’s commitment towards sustainability ethics and his creative input and efforts to make this project work. This project involved collaboration with local joiner Peter Hinton who built the doors and windows, Danny Bosch who helped with foundation and complex roof framing and Jacques Marmen, a fellow natural builder, for the light straw/clay walls and clay wall plastering. The client put in a lot of sweat equity working with a specialized metal shop to create the flashing and roofing for the witch’s prow pointed gable, the ridge protrusion that references Shinto temple architecture as well as a lot of the work burning and brushing the cedar siding and putting it up and building out the deck, beachcombing for unique driftwood pieces for interior accents and helping build the round window, among many other details.
The location is sublime. The entrance is hidden until you pass under a rose arbour and take in the cattail pond, home to all kinds of avian life, and enjoy the wide diversity of trees planted over the years surrounding the private site with glimpses of their organic garden, greenhouse and orchard beyond.
I was invited for tea on a rainy fall morning with this friend. It was such a great experience. We entered a different dimension. Tucked away, quiet, peaceful. We sipped Pu Erh tea, taking in the subtle changes in its earthy flavour from batch to batch, as we talked about life philosophy and life experiences. So proud to have been part of creating this oasis.
Allow me to help fulfil your vision. Let me know what I can build for you!
