nana’s green tea NANJING EAST ROAD
Shanghai, China / 2012

“joint”

Nanaha Corporation is a company that introduces “a new form of Japan” to the world through “matcha” (powdered green tea). They arrange high grade matchas in modern style and provide them as a menu such as matcha latte. And their intention is to make the space into a “contemporary style tea room”, not a “Japanese style tea room”.

In China, from ancient times, they have a culture to sit on a chair so that they took a seat and enjoyed to drink tea. Yet in Japan we have a culture to sit on the floor directly.
Culture of the tea was introduced into Japan from China and developed independently, after that tea ceremony was completed in our culture to sit on the floor.

Here by fusing these two cultures, sitting on a chair and sitting on the floor, we answer “contemporary style tea room” at nana’s green tea in China.

Fast of all we create a space to sit on the floor by rising the central part of the shop up.
In order to represent a Chinese space to sit on the floor not to recreate a Japanese one by using tatami, we use stone for material. And by placing the tables and chairs around the central part a space that two cultures are fused is created.

Moreover we apply a joint to fuse these two cultures.
Joint has a function: “connecting between the two materials” or “filling a place where parts of a structure are connected”.
Therefore we represent the fusion of two cultures by utilizing “shining joint” that spread over the space from the central part.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

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