A tea room away from daily life, in a villa or a detached annex. Three ways to commission one — architect, sukiya builder, or kit — compared through our listed companies.
Wanting a tea room at a villa or in a detached annex differs a little from converting a room at home. There is space on the site and a view to draw in; and because the building is used only a few times a year, ease of upkeep matters. Here we divide the ways of commissioning into three, alongside facts about companies listed on CHASHITSU TOKYO.
[Route 1: an architect] When the tea room is to be part of a whole building design, or when you want to start from the view and the approach, an architect's office is the way in. Among our listings, Yujiro Onuki Architect & Associates (Nerima, Tokyo) specialises in tea rooms, with the architect designing and contracting directly with a sukiya carpenter. Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute (Tokyo) has more than thirty years of work, designs and builds tea rooms, and handles overseas projects.
[Route 2: a sukiya builder] For an authentic tea room you can go straight to a builder that has made many. 13 of our 29 listings are authentic sukiya firms: Yamasho (Ukyō, Kyoto) builds and renovates rooms from small koma to large hiroma, and Yamamoto Kogyo (Sakyō, Kyoto) covers survey, design, construction and maintenance in-house. Uchida Komuten (Kanagawa) builds authentic tea rooms in Kantō by bringing in craftsmen from Kyoto.
[Route 3: a kit or standard model] Another choice is to place a small tea room as an annex. Sobokuya (Hokuto, Yamanashi) makes kit tea rooms of its own design using timber joinery. Taiyosha (Aichi) sells products for tea rooms and annexes, such as its "Kakishō Koma." Kato Biken (Ito, Shizuoka) offers drop-in tea rooms that are easy to transport and assemble. Millième (Kyoto) publishes prices for its kits: ¥4,180,000 for four and a half mats and ¥3,300,000 for two mats (both including tax, delivery extra).
[How the three differ] An architect lets you start from the question of what to build, at the cost of design time and fees. A builder's strength is sure handwork, but your wishes need to be fairly settled. Kits and standard models show price and schedule up front, but will not be one-of-a-kind works fitted to the site and view.
[Checks particular to a villa] For a building used a few times a year, decide at the design stage who will handle ventilation and damp while it stands empty, draining the mizuya's water, and care of tatami and earthen walls. Whether a company will take on maintenance after completion varies, so ask at the first conversation.
No route is right or wrong. Start from the view: an architect. An authentic sukiya room: a builder. A small annex first: a kit. Filter our company list by type and compare the actual work.
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