Ein Stein Haus

Another treehouse signed by the famous Treehouse-Architect Terunobu Fujimorihas been built last year for the Insel Hombroich Museum in Neuss (Germany). 

This tea-treehouse was designed for the Hombroid Rocket Station, the Europe’s first permanent NATO missile base, now disused and adapted into a museum.

“At three metres high, sitting on stilts and made of pitch black robinia wood, the treehouse is reach by 19 steps within a narrow metal staircase. The black colour of the teahouse façade is a result of the carbonisation process of the wood. ‘The traditional method, by which the wood is blackened by subjecting it to a few minutes of fire, is called Yakisugi and is typical for Fujimori’s work,’ says Frank Boehm, the curator of the project. ‘It protects the wood from the weather and damage by insects'”. wallpaper

Inside -in contrast with the black facade- the oval space panelled with oak creates the atmosphere for the perfect place to sip a tea, but Terunobu broke the tradition putting some organically-shaped benches in a semicircle instead of  tatami floor mats.

“‘Because of their distinct personality, teahouses have something human-like about them. That’s why they have names like people,’ says Fujimori, showing evidence of his wry humour.He christened the teahouse on the island of Hombroich the

‘Ein Stein Haus’ (One-Stone-House). The idea of a single stone has a special meaning in Zen Buddhism, in which it symbolises an island around which waters rush, providing peace and harmony. At the same time, his first permanent teahouse in Germany is an homage to the great German physicist of the same name, Albert Einstein. Now visitors can reflect on their own philosophical outlooks, while sipping Matcha tea and floating above the world, as if detached from gravity, space and time.

In the teahouse, says Fujimori, there is no hierarchy and no status. This has been true in Japan for thousands of years. Whether samurai, merchant or farmer, in the teahouse everyone sat at one table and was treated as equal. Fujimori likes this idea. But he wants more – he not only wants to bring people closer together, but also to bring them closer to nature. With his deeply-rooted lightness of touch, in Hombroich he has pulled it off once again”. wallpaper

Pics by  Hertha Hurnaus & Stiftung Insel Hombroich . All rights reserved.