Enso Home
The enso is a circle drawn in one or two brushstrokes in Japanese calligraphy, symbolizing enlightenment, strength, and the cyclical nature of life. It represents the idea of completeness and the continuous cycle of life, death, and rebirth. After a fire claimed the original home on this property, our team was charged with designing a new living space for the client living there. The home’s original foundation is as resilient as the client and provided a structure - literally and figuratively - on which to rebuild. To keep the design and construction as simple as possible, the team came up with the idea of simply covering the majority of the foundation with a “lid” while preserving the remainder as a courtyard. The scars of the site’s past are still there but, by embracing them, we’ve made room for this site to carve a new identity while honoring the past.
The relationship between the landscape and visitors is direct and dynamic. Three of the four exterior walls are over seven feet below the surrounding ground and a courtyard is accessed through the fourth wall. Earth is both below and above the home. This home is truly surrounded on all six sides by nature and landscape which is allowed - to a certain extent - to reclaim the territory ceded to the fire and infuse new life into this new version of the existing home.
