01 TEA HOUSE

The Tea House is a project focused on an interior redesign of an abandoned water tower in the heart of downtown Denver. It sits upon an abandoned bus depot that used to be Denver’s central hub of transportation.

Nowadays, the site is a commonly overlooked building in the city, the concept of the tea house focuses on creating a hidden paradise within the chaos of the busy city life.

Many of its aspects tie back to traditional Japanese tea houses and their senses of tranquility and self reflection. Ranging from a modern adaption of a Koi Pond to the traditional wood joinery found in many older Japanese structures, this building combines both new and old design techniques.

Structure

The design can be simply divided into three sections.

The Lightbox, which distributes an even coat of indirect lighting throughout space through the use of a mirror system reflecting light across multiple directions. This is complimented with strong slashes of direct light that directly hit the lower regions at certain times of day.

The Cube below acts as a metaphorical barrier allowing the user to bring the focus back onto themselves and avoid being overwhelmed the vertical scale of the building.