Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Architects and Artists

16/10/2026

Tending – An Afternoon with Ni Daodao 倪島島

Join SCAA and mep to explore Tending with Ni Daodao through exhibition viewing, a live participatory performance and open conversation.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

How can painting grow out of the everyday labour of gardening?

In Tending, Ni Daodao translates the experience of tending soil, gathering fallen leaves, observing moisture and waiting for change into a way of making urushi paintings on paper. The labour of the garden enters the painting process: providing conditions for a material, attending to its responses, and making ongoing adjustments.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ni Daodao lives and works in Zürich / Uster and holds a Master of Fine Arts from Zurich University of the Arts. Daodao works with Chinese natural lacquer, fermentation, cultivation, beekeeping, stitching and materials left from everyday life.
Through repeated acts of coating, cultivating, repairing and tending, the practice develops alongside materials, environments and time—learning when to intervene, when to wait and how to remain with changes that cannot be fully controlled.

ABOUT MEP
Founded by curator Dr Chen Liu and opened in March 2026, MEP is an independent contemporary art and matcha space in Lucerne.
Its programme encompasses exhibitions, artist conversations, tea gatherings, workshops and community events, complemented by a seasonal matcha menu. 

AGENDA
13:00 — Welcome and exhibition viewing
Explore Tending and meet Daodao.

Approx. 13:30 — A performance led by Daodao

Following the performance — Q&A and open discussion
Time for questions, reflections and informal conversation.

15:30— Event closes
Date & Time:
Saturday 31.10.2026
13:00h - 15:30h

Place:
mep
Bürgenstrasse 6
6005 Luzern

Fee:
SCAA members: free
Non-Members: CHF 30,- 

Please register at:
[email protected]

Poster design by Sonja Zagermann

18/07/2026

01/06/2026

Last Friday we were invited on a tour through Ville Kokkonen‘s studio at the Alte Spinnerei in Murg. The atelier told a design story in every corner: starting with a spread of bamboo typologies including solid versions, followed by an evolution of mouth-blown glass for casual drinks, continuing with lab-wear inspired functional apparel and not to forget special sauna elements made of aspen wood.

Currently Ville spends 50% of his time working on sustainable, durable materials. This includes formaldehyde-free MDF as well as hardened pure cellulose. He even has a small lab for experiments and an oven to cure cellulose – that evening doubling as the apéro fridge.

Thanks everyone for joining this inspiring event!


Photos by R. Kunz

21/05/2026

VILLE KOKKONEN
Studio Visit

Finnish industrial designer Ville Kokkonen is known for his refined, material-driven approach to product and furniture design. As former Design Director at Artek, he played a key role in shaping the brand’s contemporary design direction while staying closely connected to its modernist heritage. His work is characterized by clarity, precision, and a strong sensitivity to form and function. Today, he runs his studio in Murg on the shores of Walensee, where he develops projects at the intersection of design, craft, and industry.
We are pleased to invite you to a studio visit, offering a rare opportunity to experience his work environment and gain insight into his design practice in an intimate setting.

Date & Time:
Friday 29.05.2026
* Door opening: 17:30h
* Studio Visit: 18:00h
* Apéro & Networking: 19:00h

Place:
Ville Kokkonen – Office for Industrial Design
Alte Spinnerei
8877 Murg

Fee:
SCAA members: free
Non-members: CHF 30,-

Please register under:
[email protected]

Poster design by

26/03/2026

On a rainy Saturday evening Teehaus Liu hosted the joint event by Sinokultur and SCAA.
Rolf and Mary Liu welcomed the guests into their beautiful sanctuary, where you forget the rush of everyday life.

12 interested participants experienced a live tea ceremony led by Mulan Sun, tea master and senior lecturer at Urasenke Tea School.
As founder of SML Architektur, Mulan also designed and planned the tea store and tearoom in Bad Ragaz. While leading the guests through the ceremony, she explained the elements and movements, depicting the very precise but also deeply sensory ritual.

Crossing the Tamina River to reach the tea house, passing through the fabric curtain of Teehaus Liu, entering the beautiful tearoom: the flow created a journey which ended with a charming buffet and lively conversations. Time seemed to have stopped in the warm, serene space, and it possibly took some effort to step back into the cold rain.


Photography by R. Kunz
Text by T. Chiang

25/02/2026

TEA AND ARCHITECTURE
A joint event by and SCAA

is a Chinese architect based in Zurich (SML Architektur GmbH ETH/SIA) and president of SCAA. She is also a tea master and senior lecturer of Japanese Urasenke Tea School. Working across architectural practice, academic research, and cultural exchange, her intercultural and interdisciplinary expertise is reflected in her projects, particularly in the design of tea houses.
During the event, Mulan Sun will guide participants through one of her architectural works, Teehaus Liu in Bad Ragaz, and present a Japanese tea ceremony within the unique spatial setting.

In the 12th century, the monk Eisai 容⻄ brought green tea from Song Dynasty China (960–1279) to Japan. Toward the end of the 15th century, Murata Jukō 村⽥珠光 developed the austere Wabi-cha style of tea ceremony. In the 16th century, his disciple Sen no Rikyū 千利休 elevated the tea ceremony into a refined art form. The principles of Zen Buddhism, with their focus on impermanence and transience, together with the wabi-sabi aesthetic, favoring simplicity over ornamentation, remain central to the Japanese tea ceremony today. The ceremony embodies the beauty of imperfection, humility, and the fleeting nature of existence. Tea house architecture is, on one hand, a materialized event, like any architectural design. On the other hand, it requires an immaterial narrative, a spatial logic shaped by ritual, movement, and perception. Creating such a space demands both architectural knowledge and deep practice of the tea ceremony in order to understand its precise spatial requirements. This event brings together these two worlds Tea and Architecture, offering participants insight into how ritual, philosophy, and space intertwine. The program concludes with a Chinese tea degustation and aperitif by Teehaus Liu.

Date & Time:
Saturday 14.03.2026, 18:00h

Place:
Maienfelderstrasse 5
7310 Bad Ragaz

Fee:
SCAA/Sinokultur members: CHF 80,-
Non-members: CHF 90,-

Please register under:
EVENTFROG link in Story

Become an SCAA Member: http://scaa.ch/become-a-member/
Poster design by

21/01/2026

UPCOMING EVENT – , Studio Visit

Tetiana Kartasheva is a Zurich-based artist whose abstract work explores space, emotion, and memory. Through minimal forms and a restrained palette, she creates timeless environments that invite introspection.

We are delighted to invite you to a private visit to her studio in Zurich, followed by a small apéro over which to explore the artworks.

Date & Time:
Friday 30.1.2026, 18:30h

Place:
Badenerstrasse 816
8048 Zürich

Fee:
SCAA members: free
Non-members: CHF 20,-
Students: CHF 10,-

Please register under:
[email protected]

Become an SCAA Member: http://scaa.ch/become-a-member/
Poster design by