Vancouver Tea House (Westbank Teahouse)
This is a tearoom built in a rooftop garden in Vancouver, floating in the air. The roof is supported by four slender steel columns measuring 100 by 100 millimeters. The six-tatami mat tearoom space has no walls and is enclosed solely by glass and shoji screens. Surrounding the space, a hinoki wood veranda extends outward, and beyond it lies a tea garden. Visitors approach this separate world by stepping across carefully placed stones. The central tatami mat can be removed to reveal a sunken floor beneath, allowing the space to function as a setting for meetings or presentations with a table and legroom.
