A Japanese teahouse prototype made from food waste debuts at this year’s Venice Biennale

2023-05-08T13:18:00-04:00

Japanese architecture and engineering firm Mitsubishi Jisho Design has unveiled details of a sustainable teahouse project at the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale, which takes place from May 20th to November 26th in what is now its 18th edition.

The Veneti-An Tea House prototype is included in the European Cultural Center’s Time Space Existence exhibition, which runs parallel to the fair in the city's Giardini Marinaressa Gardens. According to its designers, the scheme is meant as a place of “renewed connection.” Its structure is composed of food waste products, adding to the intended exploration of themes of environmental protection and sustainable design.

Image courtesy Mitsubishi Jisho Design

The components are culled from local coffee grounds and pasta (common waste products in Italy, according to the designers) made using Fabula Food Concrete, a University of Tokyo-born Japanese product that entered the market only recently and offers architects the chance to build using a m...

A guerilla teahouse pops up in LA's Griffith Park

2015-07-01T15:01:00-04:00

The invitation was cryptic. A small piece of wood with a laser-burned message that read, "June 30, 2015. Please join us for tea and wishes overlooking the city. Sunrise, Griffith Park."

It's a rather charming story: an anonymous collective of artists have fashioned a Japanese-inspired teahouse out of charred wood reclaimed from the 2007 Griffith Park fire and offered it as a gift to the city. Surreptitiously assembled in parts, the teahouse was inaugurated yesterday morning for a select group of the artists' friends and associates.

The invited guests were sent clandestine notes that led them, as if on a scavenger hunt, to the wooden structure at dawn. There, green tea and cookies were offered and a ceremony was performed. An opera signer sang in the distance.

Apparently, this isn't the first time the group – who isn't named – have created a work of guerrilla architecture. And if the safety-and-regulations angel on your shoulder is balking at potential liabilities, rest easy. According to the LA Times report, the structure was designed with help from professional woodworkers. The artists pegged the wooden structure to an existing concrete and rebar foundation, which...

Archinect - News

A Japanese teahouse prototype made from food waste debuts at this year’s Venice Biennale

A guerilla teahouse pops up in LA's Griffith Park