A quiet return to what matters, in the heart of Provence.
Jardin de villars.
Location: de Villars, France
Collaborators: Rezky Khrisrachmansyah, Oktaviana Miffatulani, Irvan Nugraha, Adri (TanStudio)
Participated: 2020
Scope: Landscape Master Planning Competition
As a modern human, we live in a time with technologies, living standards, and global interactions. Highly dynamic society has driven us to focus more to fulfil our basic needs. Oftentimes those things led us to such a dilemma of living with our constant mind and daily routine. Therefore, a place to pause, take time for ourselves and to re-connect with what truly matters for us are forgotten. Jardin de Villars site gives an opportunity to re- imagine how to compose a mesmerizing atmosphere in ancient arcadian nature of Provence, South of France.
Concept & Vision
"The Enigma of Eden" is a landscape and architectural proposal that reimagines the human relationship with nature by creating a volatile landscape space designed for happiness and self-discovery. Drawing inspiration from the biblical Garden of Eden and the philosophical writings of Jean de Villars, the project seeks to disentangle modern humanity from its technology driven, fast paced lifestyle, inviting visitors to slow down, be present, and reconnect with the natural world. The site is approached as a living puzzle, a journey of four interconnected realms that together compose a complete, meaningful experience.
Programmatic Framework
The design is organized around four thematic "puzzles", Agriculture, Biodynamic Architecture, Grange Base, and Water. Each representing a different dimension of sustainable and spiritual living. These programmatic layers span across platforms ranging from the spiritual and ecological to the technological and ethical, culminating in a vision of self-sufficiency and happiness "beyond." The master plan integrates a Sport Center, wellness areas, research facilities, restaurants, and communal spaces within a rich agricultural and natural landscape, all united under the principle of Biodynamic Architecture.
Architecture & Sustainability
The buildings are conceived as extensions of the hillside terrain, using a distinctive roof transformation system inspired by traditional forms, adapted for rain harvesting, natural ventilation, and solar energy capture. The structural approach employs green building technologies alongside gorge-base production facilities for organic and biodynamic products — including wine, honey eggs, and other natural goods. Water management is central to the design, with systems for rainwater harvesting, filtration, and storage integrated directly into the architectural section and landscape.
The Enigma Water — Journey's Completion
The culminating experience of the project is "The Enigma Water", a serene water landscape that serves as the final destination of the visitor's journey through Eden. Interior spaces are warm, timber-clad, and open to panoramic natural views, blending high craft with organic materiality. This closing moment is intended to be both physically restorative and emotionally transformative, completing the enigma and offering visitors a profound sense of peace, wonder, and reconnection with themselves and the living world.
A Room With a Living View
At the heart of the guest experience lies a deeply intentional moment. Waking up to an uninterrupted view of the working farm stretching beyond the window. Each farm stay room is oriented to frame the living landscape as a ever-changing canvas: rows of biodynamic crops shifting through the seasons, morning mist rising over the terraced fields, and the quiet rhythm of agricultural life unfolding at a human pace. This is not merely a scenic backdrop, but a deliberate architectural act, dissolving the boundary between shelter and land, between guest and grower. The transparency of the facade invites the outside in, so that the scent of earth after rain, the golden hour light filtering through the crop rows, and the distant movement of hands tending the soil become part of the daily ritual of staying here. It is a reminder, framed in glass, that abundance is grown slowly and that to witness it is already to begin healing.
The Enigma Completed
To arrive at the Enigma of Eden is to leave something behind, the noise, the urgency, the forgetting. And to depart is to carry something forward , a quieter rhythm, a reawakened sense of wonder, a memory of what it felt like to be truly present within the living world. This project is not simply a building, nor a farm, nor a retreat. It is a complete landscape of meaning, where every path walked, every meal grown and shared, every morning light caught through a bedroom window becomes part of a larger story about who we are when we strip away the unnecessary. Eden was never a place lost in the past. It is a possibility, patient, rooted, and waiting. This project dares to imagine that we can find our way back.
