About T

T Houses are inspired by meditation pavilions and the traditional Japanese tea house adapted for western needs.
Originator, international artist-architect, Tony Gwilliam explains " For years I have contained a simple house, maybe a Taoist's home and many times I have sketched a simple structure- a space for conscious living. Whilst traveling in Bali I often found myself staying in simple pavilions amongst the rice fields. I felt happy there, protected from the sun and rain yet connected to the universe around me. Watching the moon, listening to the insects, feeling in touch with my essence. One day in 1996, this brilliant yet simple T house design came to me and the first T House was soon hand-crafted in Ojai, California, later to be followed by others back in Indonesia, its birthplace. Each is imbued with its own feeling of place ."

Tony & crew

We are just a small group living in the small town of Ojai.
Tony is the designer.


Pat is our young production manager

Bonnie sews canvas panels.

Others make shelves, erect T houses on site etc.

Some of the accessories are handmade and painted in Bali by craftspeople in the Ubud area.

Charlene Koonce Broudy designs and prints the silkscreen hangings.

Welcome to our little piece of webland - T Land - a place where you can enjoy a few T Houses.
T Houses provide a quiet sanctuary in an increasingly hectic world.

T Houses are places to be in nature, to play music, entertain friends, indulge yourself, a place to sleep in, to drink chai, to work in, to read, to practice yoga, to make love, even a place to sit with your laptop.

T Houses are extremely versatile and are tailored to suit specific requirements.

If walls are filled with bookshelves it becomes a place of study or outdoor office.

If transparent walls are used, a home for plants is created.

A hot tub makes a T House into a bath house;

a bed makes it into a guest room.

For dining or supping tea the center floor panel lifts up to become a Kotatsu table.

The principles of Wabi-sabi are unconsciously followed in the design of this T House. Wabi-sabi is described as the "beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional. Get rid of all that is unnecessary. Wabi-sabi means treading lightly on the planet and knowing how to appreciate whatever is encountered, no matter how trifling, whenever it is encountered. 'Material poverty, spiritual richness' are wabi-sabi bywords." - Leonard Koren. Wabi- Sabi. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley