Close-to-nature dream house on a hill

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dream was to build a house that was close to nature with ethnic nuances to enable the owners to feel the fresh air and the sound of wind blowing through the trees. Even the soothing sound of rippling water can be heard inside from every room.

That dream encouraged Wisnu Tjandra and wife Valentine Nalandau to renovate their house in Sentul, Bogor, into a house with delicate Balinese nuances, radiating from the interior and its tropical garden.

The renovated house now has two bedrooms (down from three), a family room, living room, dining room, TV room, a pantry and three bathrooms.

Though the house has an ethnic feel to it, it also has a wall consisting of vertical posts at the front which also gives the house a modern touch. This wall adds a strong rhythmic effect while at the same time also acts as a unique screen from the street.

The house's vertical motif is also repeated in the windows, columns, railings and light casings, the latter were specially designed to ensure the light would emanate in vertical lines.

"We designed the vertical light casing ourselves and instructed our workers to make enough of them for the house's outdoor lighting," said Valentine.

From the front yard, it looks like a one-story house but the land slopes downwards enabling the owner to build a lower story at the rear part. "It is a perfect setting, downward slopping land and beautiful natural scenery at the back terrace," she said.

Elements of nature, the wind and the water, were nicely integrated into the house design.

The large windows enable people inside the house to enjoy the wind blowing while in the front yard a small pond with a structure resembling a water curtain is set up. Valentine said the couple were inspired by such a structure in Singapore.

"The water in the pond is pumped up to the upper part of the rectangular structure and it falls as a water curtain," said the architect, Gregorius Supie Yolodi.

What is unique is that the main entrance is at the side of the house. From the front yard, guests follow a pathway that passes behind the water curtain and to the stairway on the left side of the house that leads to the main entrance.

Guests can also enjoy the soothing sound of water running down the sides of the stairs, while heading to the living room.

To support the house's vertical theme, another wall consisting of vertical posts was also built at the rear part of the house, shielding the entrance pathway from the back garden. "The wall is a repetition but also serves as a divider so guests can take a glimpse of the rear garden before they enter the house," Gregorius said.

From the outside, the high windows at the back of the house give a welcoming effect and from the inside, the windows give a spacious effect to the room and give an open view of the garden.

"Sunshine can penetrate the dining room optimally from these windows," he said.

Earthy colors and different kinds of natural stones were used to enhance the natural and ethnic atmosphere.

For the entrance pathway, Gregorius said palimanan stones were arranged in crazy pattern while dark gray candi (temple) stones were used for the water canals. The terrace was paved with white palimanan. The front part of the house was lined with sala gedang stones brought from West Java and bordered with koral sikat stones.

For the interior, off-white ceramic tiles with damar laut wood for borders were used to give it a clean modern touch yet maintain the ethnic nuance. The railing and the steps of the interior staircase were made of damar laut wood.

"We used different floor tiles for each room to match its function but also to enhance the atmosphere," Valentine said.

For the wall, a brownish-colored paint was brought from Bali that has a grainy-textured finish. One of the walls in the family room was decorated with small panels containing silhouettes of Balinese dancers.

The rear terrace is bordered with coral stones so that rain water will not wet the terrace and to soften the transition from the terrace to the garden.

The house's tropical landscaped garden, designed by a family relative, is planted with cyperus papyrus, heliconia and pachystachys lutea. Valentine, who also loves gardening, planted green spathiphyllum in a pot and white roses in front of the entrance and medicinal plant temulawak or curcuma xanthorrhiza in the rear garden.

As for the lighting, Gregorius said, the arrangement includes track lighting, halogen and indirect lighting that was arranged in a way to highlight certain focuses, like ornamental panels, paintings or credenzas.

"There are about 100 lighting spots. Designing lighting plans is one of my husband's hobbies," Valentine explained.

For the outdoor lighting, the house is illuminated with the lights in the vertical wooden casings. Both the casings and the light that they emanate match the house's vertical concept.

Each of the openings in the wall with vertical posts is also illuminated with lights. "The lighting arrangement gives an inverse effect to the wall during the evening," he said.

The backyard was embellished with traditional Balinese garden lamps, clay pots from Yogyakarta and a small pool decorated with small frogs statues around it.

And to best enjoy the beautiful natural view from the back terrace, the couple set up a bale bengong (traditional gazebo) equipped with bamboo wind chimes and traditional bamboo musical instruments.

"The sound of the bamboo musical instruments blends beautifully with the sound of the wind and water," Valentine said.