nana’s green tea METRO CITY
Shanghai, China / 2010

“Andon and chochin”

Since we are opening up a store in China this time, I have designed it under the theme of integrating the culture of China and Japan.  In another word, I intended to make an “Asian tea room”.

In China, people sit on chairs to enjoy tea while in Japan, due to the development of the tea cult, people tend to sit on the floor when drinking tea.
Similar thing can be said for the lighting as well. After “chochin” (Chinese lantern) was introduced to Japan, Japanese people arranged “chochin” by making it with Japanese paper and created “andon”.  “Chochin” and “andon” have progressed in a different way. In China these kinds of lighting are called “tanron”, which is a word that has the both meaning of “chochin” and “andon”.

Therefore, I have created a space that describes the integration of “chochin”, a traditional Chinese lantern, and “andon”, a “chochin” that developed in Japanese style.  What I did in particular is to divide the partition that placed the space into an upper part and a lower part before designing the upper part that is attached to the ceiling to look like “chochin” and the lower part that is connected to the floor to resemble “andon”.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

< PRESS >
Hanjoten Zukuri no Professional (Professionals of designing successful shops) Oct. 2013 Issue
ASIA PACIFIC TEA HOUSE (China) Oct. 2011 Issue
TIMES SPACE (China) Jul. 2011 Issue
Shoten Kenchiku Apr. 2011 Issue

< AWARDS >
2011 – JCD Design Award 2011 – Best 100