Tadao Ando
Japan

Sketch courtesy Tadao Ando

Inspired by Kamono Chomei (1155-1216), who wrote the manuscript HOJOKI in his exile for solitude, I envisioned a Glass Teahouse.

In HOJOKI, Kamono Chomei took along his hermitage, a tiny 3x3 meter space, where he wrote and slept and thought about the ever-changing world, contemplating nothingness as well as infinity.
This Teahouse represents a portion of cone-shaped spiral, signifying a continuous link from zero to infinity.  Corresponding to human scale, a 2.4 meter cubic space is taken from this continuous spiral and symbolized in the transparent glass box.  When one enters into the spiral, the mind could depart from everyday life and travel from a tiny condensed DNA cell through to an infinite Milky Way.  Through a simple construction, I hope the Teahouse space as a contemporary hermitage or a mind spaceship could entertain visitors by encouraging their mind into realm of unlimited imagination.
Tadao Ando

Model photos courtesy Tadao Ando
Axonometric Drawing courtesy Tadao Ando
Plan and Section Drawing courtesy Tadao Ando
Perspective courtesy Tadao Ando