Oribe Tea House

By Luigi Alini - 7 January 2010

“Poets translate the enchantment of matter into images…” Gaston Bachelard, Causeries Whilst honouring the grand-master of porcelain, Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), Kuma’s Pavilion tests an experimental use of alveolar polycarbonate to form a temporary installation. In keeping with zen aesthetics, we have here a purely contemplative space, a starting void from which Kuma “imagines matter”, exploring its scope from within its “genetic coding”. Matter as the generator of composition strategies is the principle that Kuma harnesses as he seeks to snatch stable structures of meaning out of the endless flux of energy coursing through matter: a memory trace, as it were, “mnemonic energy”. This build-it-yourself pavilion was a teaching experiment involving students from the Siracusa Architecture Faculty (Prof. L. Alini) and their counterparts from Ascoli Piceno (Prof. M. Perriccioli). A joint interactive quest for the links between technology and design, construction and figure-arrangement. The two student groups first designed for themselves and then built the pavilion piece by piece, as part of a teaching project to link research, training and ultimately professional experience. As they dialogued with the firms backing the scheme (Targetti Sankey, Seves, Bayer Sheet Europe), put together the various requirements of the puzzle, and liaised with Kuma himself, they devised and developed ways of adapting the original design: witness the solution found for the dais, or the dynamic lighting system which contrives to fill the work with a life-breath of its own. The pavilion is formed of 93 “ribs” of alveolar polycarbonate to an overall length of 6.4 metres. The 6 mm ribs vary in size and geometry as the polycarbonate panels join together. The cells are aligned vertically to brace the panelling and let through light. The greater the panel rigidity, the more even the light diffusion from the floor. The floor is itself raised 18.5 cm, lit from below and formed of a grid of aluminium...