What exactly is an occidental tea house?
In some senses it differs little from a traditional teahouse. The structure is divided into three different hierarchical areas, the host space, the guest space, and a raised alcove for flower and artwork. Yet the native French materials stubtly transform not only the appearance but the architectural significance of the traditional Japanese elements. Teahouses have never had just one defined architectural form but like snowflakes by the process and function. The word for a teahouse in Japanese is Sukiya. Sukiya can be interpreted as Abode of Fancy or Abode of Vacancy or the Abode of the Unsymmetrical That the tea-room should be built to suit some individual taste is an enforcement of the principle of vitality in art. Art, to be fully appreciated, must be true to contemporaneous life. It is not that we should ignore the claims of posterity, but that we should seek to enjoy the present more. It is not that we should disregard the creations of the past, but that we should try to assimilate
