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occidental tea house seattle daily journal of commerce |
July 28, 2010
Recycled bottles pop up again, and this time they're a teahouse
By LYNN PORTER
Journal Staff Reporter
Architect Christopher Ezzell will spend next week in Occidental Park in a
teahouse he fashioned from recycled plastic bottles.
The structure, created with the help of the Seattle branch of the Urasenke
Foundation and others, will be made of 800 two-liter plastic bottles. Half of the
bottles were previously used for a temporary art installation titled “waste not” in
Pioneer Square's Nord Alley.
The cut-up bottles will be tied together with fishing line to make walls. The walls
will hang off an aluminium hoop structure supported by aluminum poles, almost
like a shower curtain. “But hopefully it's going to look nicer than a shower
curtain,” Ezzell said. The roof will be of Mylar previously used as a sail.
Despite the effort at sustainability, some of the materials won't be green.
“We couldn't be 100 percent LEED-certified,” quipped Ezzell, who heads a
Vashon Island design firm called e workshop.
The project is equal parts architecture and performance installation. The idea
is to build a three-dimensional structure where visitors can experience the
intimate tea ceremony in which host and guest celebrate together.
“The experiment here is ‘can we have this experience in a busy urban setting
and enjoy the values of (it)?'” said Ezzell, who is a student of tea at Urasenke.
Inside the teahouse will be a platform made of reused cedar and cardboard, a
flower arrangement and poem card that speaks to being in the moment. Ezzell
and foundation members will demonstrate the tea ceremony Aug. 2 through
Aug. 7, although the structure will be up through Aug. 8.
The teahouse is part of artSparks 2010, a program of King County's 4Culture and
the city. The installations and performances — from street theater to temporary
sculpture to music — will run through October in Occidental Park.
The series began June 3 with “Build Here” by Room for Assembly, an artist
collective that experiments with architecture.
The collective — Greg Lewis, Caroline Davis and Julia Khorsand, who met
while pursuing their master of architecture degrees at the University of
Washington — researched buildings that used to be in the park. They used two-
by-fours painted yellow to map some of the walls and perimeters of a building
that had been there. Chairs and tables were set up in the “building” and people
sat at them as though they were in the ruins, said Charlie Rathbun, arts program
director at 4Culture.
ArtSparks helps activate Occidental Park, creating a more interesting and lively
place, Rathbun said.
“Occidental itself is better known for being on its way to something like the
stadiums” and it draws “street life,” he said.
ArtSparks aims to also attract others to the park, he said.
Ezzell, who has a bachelor's in architecture from the Rhode Island School of
Design, practiced architecture in New York City for 15 years before moving to
Seattle.
In 2004 he founded e workshop. The firm's work includes residential projects,
Long Provincial restaurant and sidewalk cafe in downtown Seattle, the butter
London shop at Sea-Tac, and the plaza and pedestal for the Alki Statue of
Liberty in collaboration with Cast Architecture.
Copyright 2010 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Lynn Porter can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.
Recycled bottles pop up again, and this time they're a teahouse
By LYNN PORTER
Journal Staff Reporter
Architect Christopher Ezzell will spend next week in Occidental Park in a
teahouse he fashioned from recycled plastic bottles.
The structure, created with the help of the Seattle branch of the Urasenke
Foundation and others, will be made of 800 two-liter plastic bottles. Half of the
bottles were previously used for a temporary art installation titled “waste not” in
Pioneer Square's Nord Alley.
The cut-up bottles will be tied together with fishing line to make walls. The walls
will hang off an aluminium hoop structure supported by aluminum poles, almost
like a shower curtain. “But hopefully it's going to look nicer than a shower
curtain,” Ezzell said. The roof will be of Mylar previously used as a sail.
Despite the effort at sustainability, some of the materials won't be green.
“We couldn't be 100 percent LEED-certified,” quipped Ezzell, who heads a
Vashon Island design firm called e workshop.
The project is equal parts architecture and performance installation. The idea
is to build a three-dimensional structure where visitors can experience the
intimate tea ceremony in which host and guest celebrate together.
“The experiment here is ‘can we have this experience in a busy urban setting
and enjoy the values of (it)?'” said Ezzell, who is a student of tea at Urasenke.
Inside the teahouse will be a platform made of reused cedar and cardboard, a
flower arrangement and poem card that speaks to being in the moment. Ezzell
and foundation members will demonstrate the tea ceremony Aug. 2 through
Aug. 7, although the structure will be up through Aug. 8.
The teahouse is part of artSparks 2010, a program of King County's 4Culture and
the city. The installations and performances — from street theater to temporary
sculpture to music — will run through October in Occidental Park.
The series began June 3 with “Build Here” by Room for Assembly, an artist
collective that experiments with architecture.
The collective — Greg Lewis, Caroline Davis and Julia Khorsand, who met
while pursuing their master of architecture degrees at the University of
Washington — researched buildings that used to be in the park. They used two-
by-fours painted yellow to map some of the walls and perimeters of a building
that had been there. Chairs and tables were set up in the “building” and people
sat at them as though they were in the ruins, said Charlie Rathbun, arts program
director at 4Culture.
ArtSparks helps activate Occidental Park, creating a more interesting and lively
place, Rathbun said.
“Occidental itself is better known for being on its way to something like the
stadiums” and it draws “street life,” he said.
ArtSparks aims to also attract others to the park, he said.
Ezzell, who has a bachelor's in architecture from the Rhode Island School of
Design, practiced architecture in New York City for 15 years before moving to
Seattle.
In 2004 he founded e workshop. The firm's work includes residential projects,
Long Provincial restaurant and sidewalk cafe in downtown Seattle, the butter
London shop at Sea-Tac, and the plaza and pedestal for the Alki Statue of
Liberty in collaboration with Cast Architecture.
Copyright 2010 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Lynn Porter can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.
| Christopher Ezzell of Eworkshop Design and Urasenke Foundation Seattle Branch cordially invite you to Occidental Tea House "Reuse and Transformation" ArtParks 2010 Chanoyu Tea Presentations Urasenke Foundation Seattle Branch Monday, August 2 thru Saturday, August 7 12PM and 5:30PM Pioneer Square Seattle, Washington |
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| U R A S E N K E FOUNDATION OF SEATTLE Transmitting the living art of Chado, the Way of Tea, through harmony, respect, purity and tranquility |
