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 3 layers at the roof edge to 9 layers at the dramatic central light well. The lattice, which relies on shear flow between the layers, spans up to 25m.

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.