Tea House construction (video)

Here is a video of the Japanese Tea house being put together, probably filmed over a period of around 4-5 hours. The Japanese carpenters are very precise and each part actually went together and was taken apart again several times until they were satisfied with the fit.

It is difficult to estimate how long it took to prepare the timbers, but it was made entirely from trees that were felled on the worksite and converted using hand tools. The Japanese carpenters had done quite a bit of background work before we got there and then a mixed Japanese / European group of 15-20 people spent a solid seven days of work on it before this final construction.

 My previous post shows step-by-step photographs if you want to understand what is happening in detail.

Comments

[forestoffood.wordpress.com]

That was amazing, everything fits in one go. I would have done a lot more swearing, refitting and retrying. Guess that's what separates the pro's from .. well me...

I hope you have something similar for the European pavilion, I'm looking forward to that one.

[Don Wagstaff]

Hi,
After reading through and enjoying your work here, a couple things I am left wanting to know are, why these two specific projects were chosen and why were only hand tools used?

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

[Nicola Wood]

The idea of the event was for a skills exchange between European and Japanese carpenters with a focus on traditional tools and techniques. Hand tools are really interesting because of the differences between the two cultures and also the slower pace of working makes a nicer atmosphere on site. Using hand tools really fosters a spirit of teamwork and sharing. We were also on display to the public who would far rather see a guy swinging an axe than a chainsaw! The buildings were chosen because they were typical to the two cultures and could be constructed using hand tools during the time frame of the project. The European building will be taken apart and reconstructed at a college where carpentry skills are taught as an example of our timber framing tradition.

[Don Wagstaff]

So then were there any conclusions drawn regarding, as it was set up, the tea house and the pavilion and japanese tools and the ones from Europe? I did garner that the consensus was that the Japanese adzes were preferred by all.
Was there any kind of assessment or reflection at the end of it? These exchanges are not so uncommon but the way you have documented it and presented it in this case is fairly uncommon, which is nice. With so much effort and resources already expended, why not go further than just summarizing and get as much out of the whole thing as you can?

[Nicola Wood]

It isn't as simple as that Don, in most cases it wasn't possible to say that one nation's tool was preferable to the others as each carpenter was skilled in the use of their own tools and it suited their way of working or their construction methods. They were interested to try different tools and discover different ways of working but I don't think there was much that would be directly comparable so they could say that way or tool is better so I would do or use that in the future.

I think the impact for the carpenters will be more subtle and happen longer term. They will largely carry on in their usual ways when home - using a mixture of hand and power tools - they have livings to make after all! However there are sure to be small things they have seen or done or tools they bought that will influence their way of working. Hopefully we'll be having a get-together later in the year and I want to talk to the guys to find out if this is the case.

[Bucket Trucks]

Geez, that's like one of those puzzle houses, or what we call puzzle houses. You pull em out of a box and throw em together. The factory does all the hard work.

[peter birkwood]

Enjoyed the video immensely and am building a more modest backyard teahouse with traditional japanese hand tools.

I hope i can incorporate some fine work from this video in my personal project.

Thanks for posting this clip!