TEAHOUSE
The Teahouse
During the summers of 2015 and 2016, friends, family, and Studio members came together to build a sleeping porch on a remote Maine island where Brendan spends time each summer helping run a wooden boat building program. The 10 foot square building, named the Teahouse, was inspired by a letter Brendan's father wrote in 1983 to a local builder inquiring about building a small teahouse on the shores of an old ice pond on the property, where islanders harvested ice blocks to sell to passing ships in the 1800s.
The letter from Brendan's father told the story of how the teahouse would be a thank you gift for the couple who sold the land to the Ravenhills, since they had always imagined that the forested banks of the ice pond would be a lovely place to have a spot of tea. Nothing ever came of that original letter, and Brendan's father passed away some years later. But 30 years on, the idea of pond-side teahouse finally became a reality.
TEAHOUSE
Located in a maple grove, the design of the Teahouse draws inspiration from the vernacular architecture of sugar shacks used to boil down maple syrup, and the sky spaces of artist James Turrell.