Villa Suweta

Bali, Indonesia - 2022

This house was designed as a home for two of the most interesting people one could meet. They have lived and worked all over the world and now have retired in Bali where they continue to be involved with their local community through various charities on the island.

The client’s brief was to create a modern house that wasn’t simply a regurgitation of the all-too-common “Bali villa” but rather something really special. The challenge was to design a structure that felt like an appropriate fixture to the surrounding lush jungle landscape.

To bridge the gap between modernism and nature, the design used clean lines made from textural earthy materials. These included shou sugi ban scorched black wood, natural oiled wood, black steel, weathering “corten” steel, and venetian plaster. Custom wardrobes, kitchen cabinetry, doors, and furniture carry these architectural elements throughout the interiors, alternating between scorched black wood and natural warm tones.

The property features a nine-meter (30ft) double height skylit ceiling, with glass floors to carry natural light into the kitchen. The main house holds four suites, two living rooms, and a twelve-person dining nook while the guest house has one suite, a kitchenette, and a living room. A water slide connects the spa on the upper terrace to the ten-meter swimming pool overlooking the jungle and river valley below.

Unfortunately this project was never completed due to rerouted funding during Covid. The images below are renderings and drawings of the completed design.