CLIFFWOOD
Temple of the Forest
FOREST
TEMPLE
Court of the temple, light of the valley. Cliffwood is a home for the mountainous spirit unconquerable. Filled with sunshine and fresh air, nestled in a neighborhood of oak and elm, and built in fellowship with the forest. Here one may live a life in communion with the canyon and in reverence of nature’s temple.
VIRTUAL WORLD
Click on the ground to move around, zoom in by scrolling.
THE AUTUMN LEAVES SO DRY
AND SWEET
Rikyu was watching his son clean the steps of the garden. When he finished Rikyu said, “Not clean enough, do it again.” After an hour his son turned to him and said, “Father, there is nothing more to be done! The steps have been washed for the third time, the stone lanterns and trees are well sprinkled with water, the moss is fresh and shining, not a twig nor leaf have I left on the ground.” And Rikyu said, “That is not the way to clean steps, my son.” As he shook a tree and scattered gold and crimson leaves across the garden, releasing scraps from the brocade of autumn. “There, now it is clean.”
Kakuzo Okakura
HOME WITHIN
HOME. UNKNOWN
WITHIN KNOWN.
An open vessel to invite nature into, courtyards are like little paradises, tiny heavens on earth. Invitations to let the divine grow within us. Growing peace in the home and in the heart.
THAT
THING BEYOND
What is that thing beyond? Eyes wander off into the distance. Where does that small voice come from.
CLIFFWOOD OF THE CANYON
It’s the call of the canyon. At some point the project became about telling the story of these tall village huts faced in soft, silver cedar aged by the seasons change. At night they seem to stand like great guardian spirits from a forgotten civil war era, hats in tired hands, rifles leaning up against a tree. They seem to take on this communal spirit of rest and peace. Gathered together around a campfire under a vast canopy of stars and trees, burning logs into the cosmos and lost in a reverie of mortality and infinity.
CASCADE
OF SPACE
Pause at the brink and overlook a sunken garden brimming with landscape. Cliffwood has a soaring central hall, broken occasionally by roofs from within at varying levels to create a cascading of space that tumbles down like a waterfall. A lofty roof creates obscurity overhead when flickering lights and shadows play across the rafters in the evenings. Open to the main courtyard are the kitchen, dining, study and living areas while tucked privately into both ends of the court are the bedrooms and bathrooms. The backyard is a meditative gravel garden with terraced birch trees and a pool with grand white steps that lead ceremoniously down to it’s waters edge.
