KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Attendees of the Knox Asian Festival may find a mobile tearoom with a tatami floor during the celebrations. It was built by architecture students at the University of Tennessee who blended regional Appalachian design with the traditions and patterns of Japanese tea ceremonies.
They worked over a semester to design and build it, and the tearoom will be used at the festival in September for traditional tea ceremonies. Those ceremonies will be led by a tea instructor who has studied in Japan for more than 20 years.
"We have a wonderful tea instructor who's been guiding us. We've also blended it with materials from East Tennessee, we've used hardwoods like poplar and walnut. The students did studies at the Museum of Appalachia that are patterns repeated in the roof structure of the building," said David Matthews, a UT professor of interior architecture.
The project was funded through a grant to the UT College of Architecture and Design. It is also the third structure built by students and donated to a local organization.
