Up on a hill, in a small clearing of a redwood forest in Northern California, sits MORIHOUSE, the culmination of our life work and dreams. We are Adrian Chang & Chris Lewis, designers-turned-homesteaders, makers, and creators of MORIHOUSE. This is where we live with our Sri Lankan rescue dogs and our flock of rescue chickens.
The concept of MORIHOUSE is ever-evolving and fluid, but securely rooted in our life experiences and in the wisdom of the 'hearth and home'. From self-sustaining micro-farming to heritage cooking, from woodwork to textiles, the concept of MORIHOUSE is in honor of our ancestors, families and communities. We seek to celebrate the old folk traditions of East-Asia & the British Isles in our daily lives as a path towards a more natural, sustainable & joyful way of living, and we hope to inspire others to do the same.
From California & London respectively, we met and fell in love in Tokyo after almost a decade of living and working in Japan. Having both come from backgrounds in demanding design industries- Adrian in Fashion and Chris in Luxury Brand Development- we felt a pull towards a greater purpose in life. After leaving Japan, we also set down roots in both Singapore & Sri Lanka, where we began to cultivate a deeper connection with the intersection of design, culture & the natural world through their design firm Artificer & Draper.
When the opportunity finally presented itself and after decades of living abroad in Asia, we gave up our careers to pursue our dreams of a life of self-sufficiency and returned to Adrian's home state, settling in a small run-down house in the rural redwoods of Northern California which Chris rebuilt with the help of a few friends.
With our past careers behind us, we now spend our days learning to grow our own food, tending to our animals and finally throwing ourselves into our true life's work. Informed by his training in sculpture from school and his days as his Father's apprentice in carpentry, Chris is a woodworker and carpenter in his own right with a focus on traditional, sustainable design with reclaimed and natural materials. After years of studying heritage food traditions across Asia and inspired by the teachings of his own elders and ancestors gone before him, Adrian is now a cook, food writer and a cooking instructor in the old food traditions of East Asia. He is also using his skills as a former fashion designer to create textiles and clothing inspired by his Han Chinese heritage. Both of us humble students and lovers of learning, we lay no claim to mastery of our work. Instead we seek to constantly learn from the teachings of our ancestors and heritage traditions so that we may evolve our work as we indeed evolve as beings on this earth.
As we allow the wheel of life to present our next path to us, we have plans to one day open a small brick & mortar where we can sell our wares, share food with new friends and old, and cultivate community with like minded folks. Thank you for taking interest in our work and thank you for joining us on our journey.
