A conversation with Ani Han on form, presence, and what remains unsaid.

— You often say you don’t work with objects, but with states. What does that mean?

I’ve never been interested in simply creating a thing. I’m drawn to how it feels. What it does to space, to the body, to the silence between words. When I create, I’m not thinking about function — I’m thinking about ritual. What you feel when you open a bag. How the metal of a ring sounds when your fingers close. What kind of air emerges between you and the object. To me, form is a language, but one that needs no translation. It’s physical. It’s warm.

— It feels very zen — like emptiness as an active element. Do you draw from Japanese philosophy?

Yes, but not in an academic way. Concepts like ma, wabi-sabi, yūgen — they’re not ideas to me, they’re a way of being. I’m Armenian, I lived in Moscow, studied painting in Florence, made my first pieces in Bali — all of that shaped how I understand silence, time, weight, and light. In Japan, I found a language for something I had always felt. Ma, for example — it’s a pause. The empty space between actions. And sometimes, that pause matters more than the actions themselves.

— Enso Design Lab™ feels less like a brand and more like a system. What’s behind it?

I wanted to build a space where form is thought. Where you don’t have to be loud. Where material speaks for you. Enso is a circle drawn in one movement. It’s imperfect — and that’s the point. I wanted everything coming out of our studio to feel like that circle: breathing, imperfect, precise. It’s design that makes room for the person — not design that overtakes them.

— What does luxury mean to you?

Luxury is time. Attention. Space without urgency. It’s the ability to hold something made slowly, with care, with silence inside. I don’t believe in status through logos. I believe in status through knowing. Through touch. Through stillness.

— You’re a woman, a designer, a voice — but you speak so softly. Aren’t you afraid your voice is “too quiet”?

Silence is a voice too. Sometimes the most powerful one. I don’t need to shout to be heard. I just say what I feel — through metal, through leather, through the light in a photograph. And I believe that this way of speaking is the most honest.

Enso Design Lab™ is a design studio based in Dubai. Ani Han is its creative director, working at the intersection of aesthetics, philosophy, and form.

Form. Silence. Ritual.