Wijaya, defender of Balinese style<\/p>\n
Marilyn August, Associated Press\/Sanur, Bali<\/p>\n
The former tennis pro is the doyen of Asian landscape designers
\nand the self-appointed watchdog of Balinese style.<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old Australian-born Michael White -- who now goes
\nby the Hindu name of Made Wijaya -- is perhaps the most
\ninfluential landscape artist working in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
His signature \"tropical Cotswold\" style is synonymous with
\nthis resort island itself. The \"ordered jungle\" look -- abundant
\nwith color, texture, poetry, whimsy and romance -- seduces guests
\nat dozens of luxury hotels, large and small, where Wijaya has
\nleft his mark the past 25 years.<\/p>\n
\"I'm against gardens that look like they're machine-made or
\ncomputer-generated,\" he says during an interview at Villa Bebek
\n(Duck Villa), his home and office complex in this sleepy town on
\nBali's eastern coast. \"I believe in designing the squirrel in the
\ngarden.\"<\/p>\n
Wijaya has made his mark on some 600 gardens in Indonesia,
\nSingapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and Hawaii.<\/p>\n
And he has designed homes and gardens for the rich and famous,
\nincluding the dream house of pop star David Bowie on the island
\nof Mustique in the West Indies and the Jakarta residences of the
\nU.S. and Australian ambassadors to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Current projects include a hotel on Bali for Bulgari, the
\nItalian luxury group, the architectural design for a spa in the
\nBotanical Gardens in Putrajaya, Malaysia, a boutique hotel in Hoi
\nAn, Vietnam, and a book on Indian gardens.<\/p>\n
Wijaya's design sensibility was born during a visit to
\nEngland, where he was charmed by the traditional country garden,
\nin general -- and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in
\nparticular.<\/p>\n
His Bali-based landscape architecture company, which employs
\nabout 350 Balinese gardeners, averages about 40 projects a year
\nacross the region. But Wijaya also is busy crusading to save
\nBalinese style and culture from what he considers trivialization.<\/p>\n
\"I love style, but I hate fashion,\" says Wijaya, wearing an
\nimpeccably tailored dress shirt and traditional Balinese sarong.
\nVenting his grievances in a feisty, long-running Stranger in
\nParadise column in a local English-language magazine, he has
\nprotested perching fragrant yellow and white frangipani flowers
\non urinals at the Denpasar airport, and railed against ads that
\npromote Bali using \"young white nubile females wearing no
\npanties.\"<\/p>\n
\"My dream was to be Albert Schweitzer or Richard Burton, and
\ninstead, I ended up as Tony Soprano,\" Wijaya says, referring to
\nthe middle-age boss of the fictional DiMeo crime family in the
\npopular American TV series.<\/p>\n
He is also proud of his most recent book, a compilation of
\nphotos he has taken over 30 years that is a study of traditional
\nBalinese architecture and landscaping and their influence on
\ncontemporary Balinese design.<\/p>\n
\"The Architecture of Bali is my greatest achievement because I
\nwas working against the clock. So many of the places I
\nphotographed 25 years ago have vanished. Now, there is a record,\"
\nhe says.<\/p>\n
He sees the book as a rampart against the \"pretty litter\" of a
\nnew design trend that ignores the classical language of Balinese
\narchitecture.<\/p>\n
Wijaya first visited Bali at age 19. Armed with an
\narchitecture degree, he later returned for good, embracing the
\nlanguage, culture and the Hindu religion, to which he converted
\nafter spending seven years with a Brahmin family.<\/p>\n
Villa Bebek, with its nine pavilions and six water gardens, is
\nhis favorite work-in-progress. On a recent afternoon, the air
\nthick with humidity and fragrance, the garden seemed a careless,
\nrambling maze of greenery bordering on the unkempt.<\/p>\n
Visitors find their way through a jumble of creeping, potted
\nand hanging tropical plants and flowers thanks to stepping stones
\nadorned with statuary from around Indonesia.<\/p>\n
A showcase of authentic Balinese architectural design, the
\nvilla is a marriage of inside and out. \"It's a reversal of
\ntraditional home design. The furniture is on the outside, the
\nplants are on the inside,\" Wijaya says.<\/p>\n
For him, Balinese style is simply \"the most perfect
\narchitectural language, in terms of scale, beauty and
\nfunctionality that ever evolved in the tropical world.\"<\/p>\n
Wijaya describes himself as an artist who thrives on getting
\ndirt under his nails.<\/p>\n
\"The incredible thing about gardening in the tropics is that
\nyou're always living on the edge of fecundity -- every six months
\nyou can get out the chain saw and chop it all down and create a
\nwhole new conception. You can experience all the different cycles
\nof nature.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wijaya-defender-of-balinese-style-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}