The Tea Vault is a combined storefront and house, with a tea cafe on the street level and living quarters for the owners of the cafe on the upper level. Following the precedent of the Vault House by Johnston Marklee, the Tea Vault explores similar formal and experiential consequences of the vault geometry and floor elevation changes. Using vaults in plan instead of in section allows for a more nuanced notion of solid and void, while also creating moments of privacy without explicit obstructions in path or sight. Split levels are used throughout both the cafe and the living spaces to also create implicit divisions in changing experiential zones. The Tea Vault explores how aspects of living are translated into aspects of a tea house. The longitudinal axis of the house is organized along a gradient from most communal spaces to most individual spaces; these are translated into most public and most private in the cafe. The lateral axis represents a division between spaces defined by their utility and spaces defined by leisure in the house, while in the cafe, this division is between spaces defined by service and spaces defined by their social experience.
STUDENT
Anna Jia
FACULTY
Salam Rida