Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Meditation Hut + Tea Room Brings Serenity Through Water

Posted: 14 Apr 2014 08:00 AM PDT

lake meditation hut tea room victor

There is nothing quite as serene as the sight and sound of water. It evokes a sense of peace that is hard to find anywhere else. Thus, when architect Jeffery Poss was asked to design a meditation hut/tea room on a wooded Illinois property, he was immediately drawn to the property’s lake.

victor meditation hut

The hut was dubbed The Victor. Entrance to the small meditation hut is made by climbing a small ramp and entering a door that is finished in the same cedar strips as the rest of the exterior. The door is not entirely obvious at first, lending a kind of serene mystery to the tiny building.

interior meditation hut

Inside, the glossy black floor looks like a placid pool of water. The three tatami mats on the raised black floor are islands in this small interior pond.

meditation hut and tea room

A miniature tea cabinet just off of the main meditation space features a small window that looks out over the water. Sunlight on the lake is reflected on the hut’s overhanging soffits in different patterns throughout the day.

victor meditation hut and tea room on lake

The pitched roof channels rainwater down and into the lake, lending an even deeper sense of serenity when it rains thanks to the sound of a miniature waterfall.

pitched roof low window

The hut’s interior is nearly empty, containing only the tatami mats and tea cupboard. This enables the hut’s visitors to block out the distracting objects of the typical home.

floor level window

A floor-level horizontal window in the meditation space gives a close view of the lake and allows the water to fill the space with warm, relaxing, meditative light.

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Building Blocks for Adults: Creative Odd-Shaped Shelving

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT

Building Block Shelves 1

Rectilinear shelves make it easy to organize and display objects in a variety of shapes, but thinking outside the box (literally) can lead to visuals that are refreshingly unexpected. The ROOM collection by Erik Olovsson and Kyuhyung Cho consists of pine modules with all sorts of cut-outs that can be stacked however you like, calling to mind a set of children’s wooden blocks.

Building Block Shelves 2

The 25 stackable modules feature voids in the shapes of circles, ovals, triangles, arches, octagons and more. Fitting decorative objects into them is almost like a puzzle that challenges both aesthetic and practical considerations. Which shape shows off each object to the greatest effect?

Building Block Shelves 3

The shapes inside each module are inspired by architecture and the shapes of certain objects they could hold, like rounded holes for bottles of wine and keyholes for small floral arrangements, but the options are only limited by the user’s imagination.

Building Block Shelves 4

The blocks can be stacked into a typical bookcase arrangement, or in sculptural compositions that make the resulting piece of furniture just as much of a decorative object as the items contained within.