#RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS
The Sichang-Road Teahouse
Kunshan is a town in the Yangtze River Delta near Shanghai. Many of the old canals in the city are converted into six-lane streets
For local residents it is difficult to find an atmospheric spot which reflects the former close relationship between nature and the urban environment in the historic downtown. The teahouse discussed here is located in a new high-density residential area in a western suburb of the old city of Kunshan. It was built on a linear 40 to 50-metre wide river park that accompanies the street. Opposite the street, the urban structure with stores and markets on the ground floor is the counterpart to the public park.
The teahouse is located at the edge of the river in the park and easily accessible to the local residents of the new development. The building is divided into four layers: First, a man-made dam that is a continuation of the landscape along the street and protects the teahouse from the street. Second, a bamboo courtyard for natural ventilation. Third, the indoor corridor, and fourth, a string of tearooms located in the water. The composition is sheltered by a double-curved roof which projects across all parts of the building with wooden trellis.
An intermediating pool between river and teahouse is used to maintain the fluctuating water levels of the river. With small islands in the pool, it was possible to continue the row of metasequoia trees along the riverbank.
The ten small tearooms (with four seats each) take the form of glass pods, surrounded by water and half-sunken into the pool. Like in a boat, visitors can touch the water from their seats. The small pods are covered with vine on wooden trellis. A large conventional tearoom with a black reflecting floor, gives the illusion of people walking on the water.
The double-curved roof reflects the curved roof form of traditional Chinese architecture. Here the architect tries to use the curved form in order to adapt the building to the natural surroundings and the undulating landscape.
The small public Teahouse is composed and designed at the edge of the water to provide an experience of natural phenomena to the urban residents. In a time when natural streams and ponds are heavily polluted or already disappeared in the process of rapid urbanization, an opportunity to get close to a fundamental resource of life is very important.
The sunken tearooms under the trellis in the water mark a position between the two elements: water and land. Both need more attention in the future development of China.
