Lim.

微振動する環境と居合わせる

京王井の頭線・駒場東大前駅より徒歩3分。住宅街と駅をつなぐ緩やかな坂道に位置する「うつわとカフェ Lim.」は、日本茶とコーヒーが飲めるカフェと、作家の器を展示・販売するギャラリーである。
　敷地に身を置くと、色々なことに出会う。駅と住宅地の間には1日の流れがある。
裏手の小学校からの子どもの声や、夕方に踏切を行き来する車の明かり、踏切越しの桜やセミの声、散歩中の犬、雨。それぞれの原理で自由に重なり連なっていく。内と外の環境や、光と影、抹茶の所作など、その時間に流れるさまざまな事物が豊かに重なる庭のような場所をつくりたいと考えた。
　前面道路から奥へと抜けるスケルトンの空間に、陶器やお茶を受け止めるポワンとした大地を置いた。カウンターのようでもあり、展示台のようでもあり、そのどちらでもない大きさ・形の大地である。そこに茶葉を混ぜ込み、繊細な陶器やお茶の陰影・質感に呼応させる。
　入り口の建具は、少しかがんで入る躙口とし、にぎやかな前面道路からお茶までの心理的な間を調律した。また、開口に奥行きを持たせることで器の居場所を生んだ。小さな器の群れが外からの光を受け、影を落とし、町の動きと重なって、動的な背景となる。
　周辺環境が内部に転写されながらも混ざり合い、空間の質を揺らす。豊かに揺れ動く事物たちの、さまざまな間の中に、お茶も器も人も居合わせている。

Being Present with a Gently Vibrating Environment

A three-minute walk from Komaba-Todaimae Station on the Keio Inokashira Line, Utsuwa to Café Lim. is located on a gentle slope that connects the station with a residential neighborhood. It is a café serving Japanese tea and coffee, combined with a gallery that displays and sells handmade vessels by individual makers.

When you place yourself on the site, you encounter many things at once. Between the station and the residential area, there is a daily rhythm. Children’s voices from the elementary school behind the site, the lights of cars crossing the railway in the evening, cherry blossoms and cicadas heard beyond the crossing, dogs out on walks, rain. Each element overlaps and continues freely according to its own logic. We wanted to create a place like a garden, where inside and outside environments, light and shadow, and the gestures of preparing matcha, along with many other elements flowing through time, overlap richly.

Within an open, structure-defined space, we placed a gently raised, softly contoured surface that supports ceramics and tea. The entrance is designed as a Japanese nijiriguchi, a low opening that requires a slight bow to enter and creates a psychological interval between the lively street and the act of drinking tea. Depth is also given to the openings, creating places for the vessels to reside. Groups of small vessels receive light from outside, cast shadows, and overlap with the movement of the town, forming a dynamic backdrop.

As the surrounding environment is translated into the interior, it mixes and subtly unsettles the quality of the space. Within the many intervals created by these gently shifting elements, tea, vessels, and people come to share the same place.