Breathing a bit of life into a modern home
Breathing a bit of life into a modern home
Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The overall atmosphere in the house in Kemayoran, Central
Jakarta, is minimalist and modern, but it is also a place to live
in. The designers have successfully accommodated the owners' love
of art and the spirit of fun of their young family.
The two-story house has a master bedroom with a walk-in closet
and a bathroom, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, two family rooms
(one in each story), a playroom, living room, dining room,
kitchen and a bar, study, carport and a garage.
The owners, a couple with three young children, appointed
architect Abraham "Bram" Baastians and interior designer Anies
Alkurratu Aini of PT Apta Tara Tisti Design to do the interior
planning and oversee the construction project.
"We added some openings in walls and enlarged most of the
windows to enable proper ventilation and sunlight penetration. We
also altered the interior flow so that it would be in harmony
with feng shui principles," Anies said.
Bram specially designed furniture to keep to the separate
design concepts of the different sections of the house.
One of these areas is the bar, which is designed to give the
impression that it is part of a huge painting composition.
"The owner greatly appreciates artwork and paintings and we
tried to accommodate this whenever possible," Anies said.
Two three-compartment panels were added to the wall in the
foyer and the family room to display artwork on the same "theme".
To please the children, the family room on the first floor was
designed with a "smiley face" concept. The idea was materialized
with the use of a specially designed console, whose shape
resembles a smile, with two large downlights on the wall above it
as the "eyes".
The study, equipped with high-tech facilities, is a
functional, modern working area with a formal atmosphere. Wooden
material dominates the room and is used for the walls and
cabinet.
Color was playfully added as a decorative element to the doors
of the two bedrooms for the children. The designers chose
colorful balloons to decorate the glass panels on the bedroom
doors.
"Every kid loves balloons, and they add color to the otherwise
stiff looking bedroom door. The glass panels were added to enable
the parents to check on their children while they are inside the
room," Anies said.
As an accent to the stairway area, six panels of stained
glass, depicting feminine yet dynamic curves, were put on the
facing wall.
"We didn't want to add too many details or decorative objects
in the stairway area in order to keep it clean," Anies said.
A ubiquitous decorative element in the interior is the
sunflower-carved wooden panels, used on wooden walls, bedheads
and even incorporated into the windows.
For the garden, Bram specially designed a wrought-iron main
gate, embellished with the shape of a three-dimensional leafy
plant. Its open panels allow the owners to look out to the
street.
It took artisans about three months to create the leaves on
the gate.
"The role of the main gate in most houses is to separate the
private area from the public area. For this house, however, such
strict separation is lessened because this gate has many openings
where the solid parts (of the gate) are the leaves," Bram said.
"I designed the gate with the aim to make it an element that
unites the house's private area and its exterior, instead of
separating them."