Taiyuan Botanical Garden - The Tea House

In addition to the three domes, we worked closely with Delugan Meissl Associated Architects to Design-Build an impressive 2-way multi-layer lattice structure for the roof of The Tea House.

The tea house restaurant is a 2-way lattice structure which thickens from 6 layers at the roof edge to 14 layers at the dramatic central light well. The lattice, which relies on shear flow between the layers, spans up to 31m and cantilevers up to 10m.

The whole roof is supported by a scattering of thin steel columns giving the impression of near-flotation.

Here's how DMAA describes the inspiration behind this unique design:

The restaurant is designed in resemblance to the Chinese traditional temples, evoking the wooden structures as its design premise. After a few studies trying to potentiate the structure into a contemporary and reasonable basis, a shifted grid made from stacked timber beams was established as the main conductor of a very attractive and atmospheric space. Incorporated into the landscape, for one side, the restaurants geometry detaches itself from it, opening to the lake.