‘Glass Tea House − KOU-AN’ made its debut at the 54th La Biennale di Venezia in 2011, and was also unveiled to great acclaim on the Seiryu-den stage, Tendai Sect Shoren-in, Kyoto.

The Japanese reverence for nature, perceptualizing energy, is embedded in the time-honoured Japanese tea ceremony. This installation revisits the very roots of Japanese culture through, and transcending time and space.

The “Glass Tea House” does not feature traditional scrolls or Ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement, the usual embellishments associated with a tea house. Instead, by using glass, the resulting architecture delights and confounds the eye, creating a glistening water surface under the shower of natural light, with light refracted by a crystal prism sculpture turning into a rainbow of ‘flowers made of light’. In the absence of physical components, this ‘architecture of light’ reaches poetic and thought-provoking dimensions.

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