This store sells Taiwanese tea and Chinese ancient tree tea. It is in a newly built one-story building facing a neighborhood shopping street. We designed a store where the owner brews tea for customers in a traditional Taiwanese way.
The traditional brewing process involves (1) pouring boiling water into a teapot to warm it, (2) placing tea leaves in the teapot and pouring boiling water over them, (3) pouring (2) into a tea boat with a tea strainer to even out the tea, (4) pouring the tea into an aroma cup, and then pouring it into a tasting cup to enjoy its taste and aroma. By repeating the process from (2) through (4), one serving of tea leaves can yield ten cups of tea, allowing one to enjoy the changes in taste and aroma each time.
To enjoy this process, you need an environment that allows pouring hot water and laying out various tea utensils. We designed these elements as part of the furniture pieces to facilitate the operation and make the process more enjoyable and dynamic.
First, we set the counter at a standard table height so customers could relax and interact comfortably with the owner. We used live edge portions of high-quality yet inexpensive precious wood to make the edges of the longer sides where customers and the owner sit. The space between the two precious wood planks is filled with permeable plaster, which allows the poured hot water to drain away through the tabletop. Then, we embedded a brazier for boiling water in this area and installed a water supply pipe connected to a water purifier so that the entire process of spreading out the tea utensils, filling them with water, boiling the water, pouring in hot water, and steeping the tea can be enjoyed directly on the counter.
For table seating, we decided to use standard tables to facilitate daily layout changes and designed a tea tray to receive the poured hot water and a tea chest for each table. In addition, we embedded an electric tea kettle in the luggage storage unit attached to each table so customers can enjoy brewing tea by themselves.
The shelves behind the counter accommodate tea utensils, tea caddies, tea trays, and tea chests, which are drawers. We prepared several types of tea caddies according to the characteristics of the tea leaves.
Some drawers have notched corners so that one can directly transfer loosened tea leaves into a tea jar teapot. We learned that this notched detailing is relatively typical in Taiwan. These drawers contain sets of menus and sample bottles to check the aroma, and when serving customers, one of the drawers is pulled out and offered to the table as a menu.
We designed the furniture pieces with some gimmicks that would help streamline the operation and make this complex process more enjoyable for customers.
The building owner already provided lighting, but it did not match the character of this store. Instead, we decided to hang line lighting and pendant lighting. Since the existing wiring ducts were not positioned conveniently, we strung a copper wire in mid-air and hooked the pendant lights to it. This copper wire is bent in an L-shape and extended to hang the curtains, with the curtains' weight serving to adjust the tension. We appropriated colorful chairs from the client's longtime collection, which is one of her hobbies.
Finally, the facade design was limited to several areas, as the building owner asked us not to change the existing conditions as much as possible. The entrance has a heavy residential door sash, so we added a large wood handle to make it easier to open. We made the bench at the entrance using the same wood as the handle and kept its dimensions to a minimum to stay within the site boundary. However, since the bench was so modestly sized and posed the risk of tipping over, we fixed it to the existing car stop. We initially had doubts about this newly built property, which looked like a built-for-sale house. But we ultimately decided to create an intimate experience like visiting a neighbor's house through their yard. We expect the storefront to function like a show window by showing the dimly lit interior through curtains when the store is closed.
