Tee House
The T-House project was an attempt by Ranbir Lal to design a sculpture directly associated with tea
drinking. The influence which informed the structure was the Japanese tea house with some
inspiration coming from English garden pavilions and even architectural follies. The eventual design
was a modern structure designed to provide a focus in Birmingham’s urban landscape.
The structural design started with pure mathematics. The T-House is made from a single building
block; a 3, 4, 5 Pythagoras triangle. This unit is repeated many times over and some rigid
constructional rules are applied to how they would fit together: each triangle is placed at 90 degrees
to one another, no other angle is allowed. This approach would normally assist in the creation of a
conventional building, where walls and ceilings sit at 90 degrees to each other, but in this case a
sequence of unconventional, dynamic shapes and angles were created.
The Team
Client: Pearce & Lal Art & Architecture
Architect: Pearce & Lal Art & Architecture

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