Bicycle Cart Tea-House
Christopher Allen Weaver
Upon adopting used bicycle tubes as mitate, a technique used by traditional tea
masters in which they integrated some found object into the ensemble, a
question materialized: what context would suitably host this mitate? What
individual would not only have an abundance of bike tubes, but further hold
them of such dear value that they fashioned them into a space as sacred and
intimate as a tea house? Thus, the idea arose for a tea house that could be
pulled behind a bicycle. In doing this, the architecture became liberated from a
static site, and found itself subject to an evolving context that shifts with the
whims of the tea-cyclist. The tire tubes weave through the entire design
integrated into many of the core premises: in lieu of the nomadic spirit of the
project, the bike tires serve in tension to provide a form of suspension, coupled
with simple dampers in order to allow for a smoother transport. The entry for
the guest is laterally opposed to the entry for the host showcasing their
separate paths that have brought them to this moment. The host, who, entering
from the bike, is familiar with the entry sequence and as such has a more
compressed ledge for removing their shoes; conversely, the guest, likely
unfamiliar with the space, is given slightly deeper ledge allowing a more
graceful departure from everyday comfort. In this preparatory space, the guest
sits facing away from the tea house, looking back at the world theyre leaving
behind while they remove their shoes and hang them in a recessed slot on the
interior of the side panel. Once ready, the guest will turn and be faced with tire
tubes wrapping up forming an elastic threshold; maintaining the legacy of 16
th
century Tea-Master Sen No Rikyu, the entry to the tea house is constricted
Bicycle Cart Tea-House
Christopher Allen Weaver
forcing the individual to direct their attention inward, away from the distractions
of contemporary life, as theyre posed with physical barriers that are typically
nullified by our mainstream culture of commoditized comfort. Upon conquering
this obstacle, the guest is presented the main tea space (further continuing the
legacy of Rikyu and his attempts at reducing the tea house to its minutest
form), a space that at once pushes the bounds of physical comfort yet avoids
fully repelling the body responding to its needs if not its whims, the space
widens with the knees and elbows, giving breath to movement. Placed in this
viscerally compressed space, the only thing left for guest and host to do is to
address the moment, giving birth to an intimate communion between the host
and the guest, transcending the barriers of conventional social interaction. With
excess space a rarity, the interior is intricately designed, the necessity of wheel
wells gave rise to a low ledge that contains compartments for packing away the
utensils as well as a hot plate for heating the water. In response to the element
of heat, the tea house submits, opening itself up through a localized ventilation
shaft that lets the space breathe. Further to account for the general warmth
from the proximity of two bodies, the space is open to the heavens with only a
thin screen formed by the winding tire tubes that serves both for shading and to
maintain visual isolation from the outside world. Within the central space, the
floor shifts from the wood paneling of the ledge, to a dense foam wrapped in
linen supported on hardboard for the seating area, to a wood panel in the
center of the space that recesses in response to the tools of the tea ceremony.
Running horizontally on both sides through the space recessed within the
Bicycle Cart Tea-House
Christopher Allen Weaver
structural c-channel of the aluminum frame is a length of canvas painted with a
heated energy, providing both a relief from the clean rigidity of the design and a
subject for contemplation while in the meditative experience of the tea
ceremony. Upon completion of the tea ceremony, the tools are returned to their
compartments, host and guest part going their separate ways, and the teahouse continues on its ambulatory journey.
