Chai Tea House.
According to New Museum’s chief brand officer Karen Wong, tea operates as a form of “clock,” a pan-cultural ritual of community-gathering and recess, which finds its particular translation almost in every corner of the globe. Therefore, spearheading the immersive tea experience CHA CHA at Water Street Projects in Manhattan is an ode to herbal beverage, which also aligned with the celebration of the Lunar New Year earlier this year. “CHA CHA is an amalgamation of many channels that I have been thinking on,” Wong tells Interior Design. After co-founding New Museum’s art, design, and technology incubator New Inc in 2014, she has been in a deep engagement with creatives in search of the experiential. “Both through the incubator and by teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation I notice that young people are in search of immersive experiences rather than consumer goods or narratives controlled by major brands,” she says. Wong also realized the timelines of organizing a project that unites the AAPI community after the challenges of the pandemic era.
Guests gather over tea at the CHA CHA Festival.
The festival includes six installations commissioned to various Asian-owned architecture and design firms and collectives in addition to a plethora of tea and food purveyors. “I am not a tea expert but a tea lover,” adds Wong who named the festival to salute superstar Bruce Lee, who was a cha cha champion in Hong Kong at age eighteen, as well as the word for tea in many Asian languages. The initiative also honors late Taiwanese-American architect Alfred H. Liu, whose ambitious commerce and entertainment complex Far East Trade Center in Washington D.C.’s Chinatown failed to come into fruition due to lack of support in 1986.
The installations—including those by mother-daughter duo Toshiko Mori and Tei Carpenter, Shannon Lai with Studio Lily Kwong, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, CoCo Tin and Ming Chen, Areesha Khalid, and Aaron Santiago and Michaela Ternasky-Holland—invite public participation and offer new understandings of a tea experience, visually, spiritually, and gastronomically.
The traditional lion dance performed at the CHA CHA Festival.
Wong felt compelled to curate a selection of participatory projects through her conversations with industry players. “I notice that so many design fairs pick up the formula of art fairs where everything is on pedestals and you can’t touch them,” she says. “However, I’ve been hearing from many architects and designers that people want more friendly, accessible, and even chaotic experiences that they can touch and smell.” CHA CHA was open at the Water Street Projects Building every Saturday and Sunday throughout the month of February.
Savor Design-Worthy Experiences At This Tea Festival
Oolong Tea House: Morning Light by Aaron Santiago & Michaela Ternasky-Holland
Oolong Tea House.
Visual artists Aaron Santiago and Michaela Ternasky-Holland have orchestrated a multi-sensory experience with the help of tea’s transformative quality as well as simulation technology. The collaborative duo has built a contemporary version of a traditional tea house where visitors can step in for a tea leaf fortune reading. Five types of Oolong tea from Taiwan’s Lishan Mountain is on offer, followed by relaxation on pillows at a darkened room where each participant can place their tea cup under a light projection to decode the meaning of their beverage’s leaves about their future. Moving abstract patterns mystically morph in a loop on a large wall projection, accompanied by a genderless voice’s premonitions. Be prepared, for example, for the AI’s constructive advice: “You stand on a threshold ready to break free from self-constrains.”
Pu-Erh Tea House by Chen Chen & Kai Williams
Pu-Erh Tea House.
Chen Chen & Kai Williams created a playful fountain of tea disposal inspired by the tradition of rinsing the first infusion of the fermented Pu-erh tea and dumping the leftover dark water. The Brooklyn-based design duo settled on the idea of a large red-hued resin fountain after witnessing the common habit of consuming tea on large metal pans in Southern China. Baoding balls, which are a popular way of exercising hand and wrist muscles among Chinese elders, dance on the fountain’s rotating water and tea blend. Chen and Williams have included stools made out of EPDM rubber for those eager to be hypnotized by the dancing balls as well as the change of color in the water with more tea being poured. The seats’ chipped nature replicates the extremely-condensed packaging of Pu-erh tea which helps preserve the leaves for years. Bruce Lee’s famous quote “Be like water,” was yet another inspiration for the duo. “The expression is about being able to mold yourself to gain power,” says Chen.
Lotus Tea House by Shannon Lai
Lotus Tea House.
Artist Shannon Lai joined forces with Studio Lily Kwong for yet another participatory and contemplative project which invites attendees to plant their own lotus plant. A large floor mirror echoes the form of a pond where lotuses commonly float. Here, small plants sit on the shiny surface in growing numbers with each person submitting their seedling and hopefully return to witness its growth before the show’s closing. “This is a space to allow people to take a breath and enjoy a moment of stillness as well as slowness,” explains Lai who hopes the process encourages everyone to “manifest a dream or hope.” She is mesmerized by the status of lotus being among the oldest plants in existence with roots in Northeast China. The collaboration between Kwong who is known for her mesmerizing flower installations and Lai who is an agriculture-trained farmer yields a soothing aesthetic encounter with the promise of an actual blossom.
Chai Tea House by Areesha Khalid
Chai Tea House.
Areesha Khalid translates India’s traditional chai houses through a more inclusive lens of femininity and self-expression. The London-based designer questions the exclusivity of such locales for male patrons through subtle references to female artisanship and textures. Khalid’s installation replicates a typical domestic courtyard where women typically enjoy chai. “I wanted to explore these spaces which are often ignored and shed light to them,” says Khalid. Strict symmetry and a four-corner format replicates a typical courtyard architecture. Layers of dupatta which are long shawls worn by Indian women drape from the structure’s sky-like ceiling. Mirror accents pay homage to Pakistan’s UNESCO World Heritage Site palace Sheesh Mahal which is known for its elaborate mirror decorations. The carpeted floor and a water planter contribute to the welcoming ease. The panels with zigzagging weavings at the structure’s bottom salute traditional daybeds called charpai, which are commonly woven by women artisans.
TCM Apothecary by CoCo Tin and Ming Chen
TCM Apothecary.
The wild popularly of Traditional Chinese Medicine across the globe, as well as its often misinterpreted usage, prompted architect CoCo Tin and researcher Ming Chen for a circular installation of products related to the expansive practice. The duo worked with Chinatown-based Kamwo Meridian Herbs to source various forms of herbs, fungi, plants, and dried sea creatures—28 in total. Displayed on a sleek circular structure, the number of offerings respond to lunar and menstrual cycles. Visitors can smell each offer by lifting the protective glass jar and read about its health benefit. Jujube’s energy-boosting quality or the calming aspect of mother of pearl are explained on steel plates on tables with minimal design elements. The designers, working with graphic designer Betty Wang, also added each herb’s Chinese translation on chrome cutouts on the corner of each table for a more dynamic layout. “We are inspired by traditional medicine cabinets at local apothecaries where each herbalist has their own way of configuring the drawers’ format,” says Tin who adds that round dinner tables in Lunar New Year celebrations also encouraged them for the circular form.
Hojicha Tea House by Tei Carpenter and Toshiko Mori
Hojicha Tea House.
Repose is the main invitation in Tei Carpenter and Toshiko Mori’s installation of a traditional Japanese tea picnic. Assuming Water Street Project’s high-rise-covered downtown Manhattan views, the mother and daughter architects prove the possibility of relaxation through tea and thoughtful design even in the most high speed settings. Three wagasa umbrellas which are traditionally crafted in Kyoto with paper, bamboo and wood are scattered around the layout where cedar tea boxes commonly used for tea storage offer seats. Besides touch and taste, smell is not compromised. The long-roasted green tea from Kyoto, which gives the installation its name, is roasted on an adjacent table, releasing the plant’s soothing scent and roasting sound into the space.