This new house will be nestled into ten acres of wooded valley in a rural neighborhood outside of Kerrville, Texas. The clients are interested in Asian architecture and gardens. The conceptual design of the house is Asian-inspired with strong horizontals, an inward-facing courtyard, moving doors that open the house to the landscape, and a veranda (engawa) under the wide roof overhangs that provide a natural transition between the rooms within and nature without. Every room in the house opens to the outdoors.

In plan the house is horizontally layered from street to woods --- stone wall, courtyard, living space, courtyard, water, woods. The house transforms from solid at the street to transparent at the rear. The visitor enters through the stone wall, leaving behind the noise and bustle of the street and into the calm and quiet of the Zen garden. The eye focuses on the house interior, then past it into the woods through layers of glass walls.

The stone wall facing the street gives the house privacy while anchoring it to the land. The overhanging roofs with dragon rafters add a little mystery (and fun).