The tea house, in traditional Japanese and Zen culture, is a space of contemplation and intention. An austere pavilion of timber and cane, set apart from the outside world within a mossy garden, it is a place where weapons are left at the threshold. Here, in a ceremony with no spectators, only participants, tea is prepared and shared: a drink once valued for keeping the mind awake, composing a moment of presence and inward connection.

The Tea House reflects the ethos of studio, as well as my own approach to architecture: a belief that architecture can serve not only our aesthetic and practical needs, but also deeper and human ones - for inspiration, vitality and agency. The Tea House has embodied this role in the past, and perhaps has an even greater one to play today, in the age of pervasive behavioural influence.

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The process of researching, bringing together and refining these ideas is, for me, also a way of learning and becoming a better architect. And I share them in the hope of encouraging a more conscious relationship with architecture: one in which we become aware that design not simply as a matter of form and function, but also as a form of influence.