A project building a tea-ceremony room in Lloyd Hotel Amsterdam, Holland.
With a background as a carpenter building tea-ceremony houses (SUKIYA) and Japanese style restaurants, I have noticed that we are losing Japanese traditional culture day by day.
Last year I was designated as cultural exchange Ambassador from the Agency for Cultural Affairs to be sent abroad for its cultural exchange program. For that I have started a project holding tea-ceremonies at a room created by local people, with local materials and cultural inspirations.
This time, the venue is the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, Holland and I have been in charge of designing and renovating its guest room.
I had an idea of making an independent shed outside of the hotel even though Suzanne Oxenaar, the artistic director advised renovating one of the guest rooms as it could be difficult to maintain the condition of the shed with the uneasy weather conditions and coastal location. Our aim is to keep this project ongoing through different stages.
In the original guest room, I noticed that every time the shower was used, the room flooded between the entrance and the bed area. To prevent this, I enclosed the shower with a slide door and isolated the corridor with a Japanese style alley way. The bed room is about 9㎡ square which is also four and half Japanese TATAMI size. The display space (TOKONOMA) and small desk (SHOIN) provide the original element of a Japanese tea-ceremony room.
I researched the local materials in Amsterdam to find some old materials used for different buildings 200 - 300 years ago. Oak, pine and teakwood beams, pillars and flooring were brought into a workshop to be processed with both local heavy machinery and Japanese hand tools.
The old nails were removed from the old piece of wood, and after being cut and refurbished with electric circular saw, were placed back in. The new surfaces were finished with Japanese hand-planing to embrace both old features with its original history and the newly created aesthetic. Tatami found in Amsterdam were refurbished in collaboration with local artists using the Lloyd hotel original textiles as the rim of the mat.
Accordingly, almost all of the materials used for this project were found and completed in Amsterdam and most of the work was undertaken by local artists, Lloyd hotel staff, and myself. It will be updated every time I visit Holland, adding new pieces upon each occasion.
We hold a Japanese tea-ceremony at the opening reception so people could experience the Japanese tea tradition as composite art. I truly hope staying in this room with the combination of Japan and Holland together helps lots of guests understand Japanese culture, and in return to hold an Amsterdam style hospitality event in the near future.
construction：Fumihiko Sano
photo：Roel Backaert
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