Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom by Minxuan Xie is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Golden A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Competition Category.
GoldInterior· 2020
Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom
by Minxuan Xie
Client: Chuan-Wo
Golden A' Design Award Winner in Interior Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #88053The Design
About Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom
Shiding Tea Ceremony is a tea art classroom created for a high school in Taipei. The project converts a damp and dark storage room into an open teaching space. Large glass windows and a wooden platform connect the interior with the surrounding landscape, and bamboo is used as the ceiling material. One original tea stove and chimney are kept as a reminder of the past. The glass is thickened and the window frames are reinforced for safety. The space measures 18370 mm in width, 9280 mm in depth and 4430 mm in height. The open layout supports contact between students, visitors and nature.
The Recognition
About the Golden A' Design Award
Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.
Where to Get It
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Discuss Your ProjectInterviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to connecting indoor and outdoor spaces in the Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom has earned recognition with a Gold A' Design Award - could you share the philosophical journey that led to breaking down these traditional architectural barriers?
I have always believed that architecture should not be a rigid, impenetrable shell that severs humans from nature, but rather a transitional medium. In the design of the Shiting Teahouse Classroom, I broke free from the constraints of traditional enclosed walls, incorporating the classic concepts of "borrowed scenery" and "framed views." Through expansive, transparent openings and deliberate spatial routing, the changing light, wind, and greenery of the four seasons are organically drawn indoors. When tea practitioners take their seats, the boundaries of the space gently dissolve, allowing indoor tranquility and outdoor nature to coexist in harmony. This interplay of the tangible and intangible not only expands the visual scale of the space but also shatters physical barriers, allowing users to experience the Zen concept of "unity between humanity and nature" amidst the fluid dynamics of light and airflow.
The Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom beautifully integrates Japanese tea ceremony rigor with Taiwanese tea culture - how did you navigate this cultural fusion while maintaining authenticity to both traditions?
This project is a cultural dialogue between "ritual" and "comfort." Japanese tea ceremony emphasizes Wa, Kei, Sei, Jaku (Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility). We strictly adhered to the spatial proportions, tatami layout, and kneeling (seiza) dynamics of traditional Japanese tearooms to preserve that grounding, solemn sense of ritual. Conversely, Taiwanese tea culture emphasizes sharing, hospitality, and a more relaxed, lifestyle-oriented approach. To reflect this, we infused warmth, approachability, and flexibility into the material palette and the reception area. By seamlessly juxtaposing these two design languages, we allowed the rigorous Japanese structure to form the backbone, while the warm, spontaneous soul of Taiwanese tea culture breathes life into it. This modern transformation creates a perfect, harmonious balance where dynamism and stillness coexist.
In designing the Shiding Tea Ceremony Classroom, how did you address the significant challenges of water damage and wall deterioration while transforming a neglected storage space into an environment that embodies tranquility?
When dealing with a derelict, structurally aging storage space, the core of the transformation lies in treating the root cause. Before pursuing aesthetic expression, we dedicated substantial effort to a comprehensive structural checkup and reinforcement. To combat severe water leakage and deteriorating walls, we implemented systematic waterproofing methods and structural reinforcement to guarantee long-term durability and indoor comfort. This was a process of turning the obsolete into the extraordinary. We deliberately preserved parts of the original aged textures to give the space historical narrative. Once the persistent dampness and darkness were completely resolved, the raw honesty of the structure became the perfect foundation for fostering serenity. Through meticulous lighting design and invisible structural engineering, we successfully transformed an abandoned, forgotten space into a peaceful sanctuary that quietens the mind.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Using large windows to eliminate man-made barriers,perfectly reflecting the spatial ideology of the culture of tea hospitality,creating the openness and connectivity between indoor and outdoor spaces,raising the level of the interaction and communication between people. Making art of tea no longer a class just for learning, it is for the participants to physically and emotionally experience the quietness and completeness brought by the harmonious unity of the tea, the nature and the people.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- width 18370mm X depth 9280mm X height 4430mm
- Tags
- Shiding，Senior High School，Tea Art Classroom，Tea Art，Tea
- Production Technology
- We use a large glass and wooden platform to connect the landscape to the interior space, and use bamboo as a ceiling material to bring natural elements into the space design.
- Design Challenge
- This design case uses the original tea-making experience classroom of the school to carry out planning and transformation.
Shiding high school is located in the wet and rainy halfway up the mountain. The building has been in such an environment for a long time and has been seriously repaired with serious wall cancer problems and water leakage.
Also, because of the damage of tea-making equipment, the frequency of classes is reduced, and it is a wet and dark storage room.
We reorganized the built environment and kept one of the tea stoves and chimneys as memories of the past.
Taiwan’s past was deeply influenced by the culture of Japanese rule, and the tea ceremony brought in exquisite and rigorous tea spirit at that time.
Taiwanese tea art retains the important elements of Taiwanese tea art and advocates the attitude of life and nature.
Therefore, we use wood materials to reflect the flavor of Japanese style and make a fusion with Taiwanese tea.
Let the rigor and focus of the Japanese-style tea ceremony be reflected in the space, and the wooden structure also makes the original wet and cold space warmer.
The natural mellowness of Taiwanese tea is filled with the fragrance of the entire space to the natural environment outside.
It symbolizes the Zen and life attitude of Taiwanese tea art.
The school plans to open a large area of floor-to-ceiling windows, and the school has security concerns.
Worried that such a design would be invaded or destroyed by a person with a heart or a broken glass caused by a typhoon.
Therefore, in addition to increasing the thickness of the glass, and strengthening the structure of the window frame,
The design is made and safe. - Research
- Shiding High School is located in the mountainside campus in the rainy area. The surrounding characteristic industry of this school is the tea industry. The school hopes that the designer can connect the idle space with the characteristic industries around the school, and the designer cuts into the space design from the perspective of humanity. Concept, many people in the former Taiwanese society will put a pot of tea at their doorstep, so that passers-by can ease the hardships on the road, but as the society progresses, people's requirements for safety and health are gradually improved. Such behavior is now invisible. At the same time, people's distrust is also rising. The school also builds a high wall for students' safety to teach students knowledge. The designer's challenge is how to use space changes to restore trust between people. The teacher removed the high walls of the campus, allowing the students' vision to extend outwards, establishing a connection between the human and the natural environment, while the people who went up the mountain extended their steps outdoors for a while, and the students served a cup of tea. The fatigue of the passengers also allows the students to find the feelings of the people in the process of offering tea, sincerely caring for others, or This is just a simple thing, but it will gradually ferment in the minds of students, affecting their thinking and life. The opening of large-scale external windows, in addition to the sense of influence, also increases natural lighting to make the overall indoor environment no longer bleak.
- Inspiration
- In early Taiwan society, The culture of tea serving, which relieved the hardship of passersby in the past, reflects a spirit of giving and a virtuous character of the host.Today tea is an art, but the most important spirit of it is not preserved. creating the openness and connectivity between indoor and outdoor spaces,which closes the distance between people and removes the barrier of trust.
- Project Duration
- The project began in Taipei in October 2018, was completed in Taipei in April 2019, and was exhibited in Taipei in June 2019.
- Operation Flow
- Make the originally enclosed space open, visually, this creates a feeling of openness and connectivity between indoor and outdoor spaces.
- Team Members
- MIN-XUAN XIE
CHAO-HUNG YEH - Image Credits
- Image #1: Creator XIE MIN XUAN, SHIDING HIGH SCHOOL Tea ceremony classroom, 2019.
Image #2: Creator XIE MIN XUAN, SHIDING HIGH SCHOOL Tea ceremony classroom, 2019.
Image #3: Creator XIE MIN XUAN, SHIDING HIGH SCHOOL Tea ceremony classroom, 2019.
Image #4: Creator XIE MIN XUAN, SHIDING HIGH SCHOOL Tea ceremony classroom, 2019.
Image #5: Creator XIE MIN XUAN, SHIDING HIGH SCHOOL Tea ceremony classroom, 2019.
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