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The Black Tea House on Sand

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The pale bamboo interior of the Black Tea House welcomes light bounced up by white sand onto the placid simplicity of its viewing platform.

Dark strips of wood filter the play of sunlight onto its platform.

The blackened-larch wood strips is the source of the name; the Black Tea House.

Sliding doors on three sides make it possible to contemplate differing views into the surrounding gardens.

From this angle, the small and concise structure of the tea house is made clear.

The green roof will eventually grow native grasses like these surrounding it.

The curved sliding door on the left would appear to be made of a flexible material such as rice paper with wood ends, so that it is able to slide around the curved wall, an intriguing and interesting idea.

A tent of ropes creates a view up the chimney, where the teapot is suspended.

As the ropes come down, they are held in place by a woven effect in the sisal ropes, that makes this portion of the tea house seem to reference a yurt.

A temporary building material is used (the fiber rope) to form a roof, conjoined to an earthen wall, connecting this tea house near sand to a perhaps more ancient tradition of stopping for tea in a desert encampment on a journey.

A more traditionally Japanese focus on the simplest elements is evidenced in these bamboo vases for dried flowers built right into the wall.