Lakeside Teahouse in Jiaxing by Domain Architects

By Domain Architects - 7 October 2024

The Lakeside Teahouse, designed in Jiaxing (Zhejiang Province, China) by Domain Architects, is located in front of a hill, with a distance of a hundred meters from lake shore. Two houses dating from the 1930s with small courtyards (aka "sky well") were to be connected and transformed into a teahouse and also a rest space for tourists.

The timber-frame structures still remain intact except for the roof of one small volume. To preserve local memories, the architects decided to keep the old houses and touch them as gently as possible. At the same time, they wanted to create an unprecedented experience with juxtaposition of tradition and contemporariness.

Lakeside Teahouse, The new corridor-bridge grows out of a small volume of an old house ©Zhang Chao, courtesy of Domain Architects

The scenic area was famous as a great example of traditional Chinese literati aesthetics. In traditional Chinese landscape paintings, corridors and bridges often became the focal points. They were not only passage ways but also resting places. The landscape hand-scroll paintings are especially famous for their extreme horizontal length: they are not meant to be seen at one glance, but should be read progressively as the viewers unfold the scroll.

Lakeside Teahouse, Interior of the new structure ©Zhang Chao, courtesy of Domain Architects

The act generates a sense of ritual. What about reading the actual landscape in such a poetic and introspective way? The architects connected the two old houses with a curved, elevated bridge-corridor. Starting from a small volume without roof and stopping next to the old wall, the bridge-corridor barely touches the existing houses. Walking along the corridor, guests will experience the shifting views of the landscape, as if they are reading and unfolding a long scroll painting.

The lake side of the corridor is fully glazed while the hill side is protected by an irregular array of steel posts and PC tubes (clear and frosted), providing natural ventilation and filtering sunlight into a fascinating effect. The irregularity of the PC tubes completely breaks the rhythm of load-bearing steel posts.

Lakeside Teahouse, The light and shadow in the corridor ©Zhang Chao, courtesy of Domain Architects

The structure design strategy did not focus on expressing the long expansion, but producing a variety of supporting forms, from staircases and side-support of a gable wall, to local stone and 7-shaped concrete structure. The informal, non-sequential design leads to a much more casual and relaxed atmosphere.

To maximize the view of the lake, the section of the bridge-corridor was designed as a single-sided cantilever. Controlling the overall deformation to achieve structural rigidity had become the major structural issue.

Lakeside Teahouse, Aerial view with the lake ©Zhang Chao, courtesy of Domain Architects

The ground between the two houses had been eroded by a seasonal creek. Conveniently, we transformed it into a shallow pond. The path and platform by the water, the stone-slab bridge, the old houses and new corridor, the bamboos, and the existing trees, form enchanting special relationships on a very limited site, evoking the charm of traditional Chinese gardens.

Domain Architects preserved the pre-modern atmosphere of the old houses. The steel and glass corridor bridges both spaces and ages, creating a time-travel experience for visitors.

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