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Hundreds of pieces of what appears to be a deconstructed Tajik teahouse like the one in downtown Boulder were found in crates in a Maryland barn. Last summer, a team from CMDI traveled across the country to document the crates' contents. Photo by Eloisa Samper.

Being behind the camera has always been Eloisa Samper’s cup of tea.

As a child, she would simply “capture moments,” but by the time she was in high school, she was taking photos and videos for their sports teams, even making a documentary for one of them. So when it came time to choose a college major,��media production at 91��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information was obvious.

But before she even attended her first class, she had an opportunity most first-year students could only dream of: With her camera, she helped a professor document and authenticate a rediscovered teahouse, packed in dozens of boxes, that had been sitting in a Maryland barn for more than 20 years.

“I would have never considered that this would be a possibility,” she said. “I felt like an archaeologist, almost—like I'm gonna be part of the next big thing.”

And that’s exactly Nate Jones’ hope.

Jones, a lecturer in the environmental design department at CMDI, said he wouldn’t call himself an expert of Tajik teahouses, but he “knows enough to be dangerous.”��

As the assistant director of advising and professional development at CMDI, Jones facilitates opportunities for students to get hands-on experience during their undergraduate years. One way has been connecting architecture students with the Tajik artisans who periodically come to Colorado to��perform maintenance on Boulder’s teahouse; since 2016, Jones has been on the board of Boulder-Dushanbe Sister Cities.

A tale of twin teahouses

There had long been whispers about a second teahouse made by the same craftsmen, but records of it had been lost to time—until a contractor was hired to clear out a barn in Maryland and he stumbled upon the disassembled pieces.��

His research into what he had found led that contractor to a book,��An Architecture of Dialogue: Learning from the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, about Boulder’s teahouse. He then reached out to Jones—who co-authored the book with��Shawhin Roudbari, an associate professor of architecture, and Kate Sector Gregg (EnvDes’19)—to see if he could help.

Given his involvement on the Boulder board, Jones contacted a group of Tajik investors who had long expressed interest in creating a cultural center in Colorado. Perhaps, he thought, if the crates could be authenticated, the building could be brought here, studied and reassembled into such a community space.

He reconnected with Sector Gregg, who worked on a��Dushanbe teahouse restoration as a student; she is now an architect in Texas whose firm routinely does historic preservation work. Jones also wanted student help in documenting the process, eventually choosing Samper.

Not all the pieces found in the crates were completely finished. "There were all these things that I think the artists had packed knowing they would want them for the future assembly," said Kate Sector Gregg (EnvDes'19). Photo by Eloisa Samper.

“When you bring together students and professionals, that’s where the magic happens,” Jones said.

The trio embarked on a three-day trip to Maryland. Photos, video footage and rudimentary 3D scans of various pieces in the crates were sent to the Tajik artisans behind Boulder’s teahouse.

“The artists looked at the pieces and they said, ‘We know that work.
That was us. We never knew what happened to this,’” Jones said.

He hopes the crates will be sent to Boulder, so their contents can be more thoroughly documented. For example, using lidar would enable the team to create a 3D rendering of the building. Since no blueprints exist, Samper’s photos and initial scans will be key in understanding how the pieces fit together.

“Eloisa represents the first in a hopefully long line of students and other folks in the college participating in this project,” Jones said. “Hopefully we can get the thing here and get students and faculty from other departments involved, too.”

For now, the experience has confirmed for Samper that media production was the right move for her. She said she loved having the opportunity to not only work alongside faculty on a once-in-a-lifetime project, but to connect with the contractor who found the pieces.

“It definitely showed me how much I love documentary work, and it genuinely brought me so much joy,” she said. “I’m confident it’s something that will help me move on to bigger projects in the future.”

Over the course of three days last summer, Nate Jones, Eloisa Samper and Kate Sector Gregg photographed and documented hundreds of pieces they believe belong to a lost Tajik teahouse. Eventually, Jones hopes the pieces can come to Colorado for more students and faculty throughout CMDI to get involved in the project. Photos courtesy of Eloisa Samper and Kate Sector Gregg.

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.