CHA 茶
A neo-Chinese tea house on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard — from a concrete shell in four months.
- Type
- Tea house · HoReCa
- Area
- 65 m²
- Dates
- February — May 2026
- Address
- 3 Ștefan cel Mare Blvd, Chișinău
- Status
- Completed
- Team
- Evghenii Mihailiuta, Nikita Biletchii, Tatiana Sirovatscaia
Chinese character through material and light, not through souvenir décor.
Turn an empty concrete space on the ground floor of a residential building into a tea house where people want to linger. The space came unfinished: concrete walls, floor and ceiling. No kitsch and no “Chinese restaurant” — a contemporary neo-Chinese style (新中式). The 65 m² had to hold a hall with different kinds of seating, a bar and a washroom, and the journey from bare walls to opening had to take four months — from February to May 2026.
A linen ceiling on timber slats, House of Hackney Zeus wallpaper with peacocks, a stepped layout on three levels and a monolithic communal table of stone and wood at the centre of the hall. The light is only reflected and concealed: there is not a single ceiling fitting in the tea house. The character of the interior rests on its materials — linen, timber, stone, steel, mirror and green marble — so there is almost no separate décor. Outside, an empty opening in a concrete wall has become an entrance with the CHA 茶 sign and planting.
Five decisions that shaped the hall
Fabric stretched over timber slats absorbs noise and softly diffuses the light — the hall stays quiet even when every seat is taken. The ceiling works as acoustics, as a source of soft light and as the defining image of the tea house, all at once.
11 lighting scenarios: only reflected, accent and concealed LED light. Narrow mirror strips and full mirror planes. The scenarios change while the interior stays the same: only the light is different.
The stepped layout divides the 65 m² into zones without a single partition. The levels separate one group of seats from another, yet the hall stays whole: you take it all in at a glance.
A monolith of stone and wood — the social and architectural centre of the hall. Guests sit at it together, and the rest of the seating is arranged around it.
A bar in stainless steel and mirrors, and a washroom in green marble. The cool, glossy surfaces set off the warm linen and timber of the hall.
Then and now — from the same spot
“[Review from the owner of CHA 茶 — 2–3 sentences: what changed for the business after opening]”
