Pempki

In the district of Higashiyama, @kirakutei_official introduces a personal approach to hospitality — conceived as a private home first and quietly opened to guests. The property is conceived around the idea of second homes shaped by their owners’ lives. The interiors unfold with quiet restraint, where natural materials and measured proportions shape a calm domestic atmosphere. Pale timber surfaces, textured walls, and soft daylight create a layered sense of warmth, while carefully framed openings draw the eye toward the private gardens. Published in @design.anthology Creative strategist & producer: @erisatakeda

To look up to a studio is to learn from their research into the meaning of design as a way to interpret culture and geography through converting materials into forms and volumes. In the context of a house, forms and volumes we can inhabit. Since I arrived in Bali, my understanding of design has changed because of exploring these projects. It shifted the day I was sitting in the smallest design of this anthology, looking at the edge where spaced wooden pieces converted into continuous wooden slabs. I realized that without the contrast between those two forms — even though they were in essence the same material — I would feel like sitting in a wooden box. I started to look around. A thin stone slab, preserving its natural appearance, was integrated into a wooden bathroom as a shower base, while a large stone crafted with intentional cuts served as a transitional step between the garden and the building. Banana paper was used in glass windows to create intimacy and filter light in the living area, whereas the working area was left open to maximize light and increase spatial perception. Wherever I looked, materials were natural; wherever I looked, materials had a purpose; and altogether created an atmosphere in which I suddenly found myself present. I knew very little about what design meant, but since then, I started to find in the subtlety of these gestures a vocabulary conceived to give function and meaning to the way we live. How does design influence a bamboo house for a family to live in a tropical climate? How do designers apply the knowledge of Indonesian ethnicities to reinterpret traditional houses in a contemporary context? How does a studio reimagine the tropical lifestyle, from its first design 15 years ago to its most recent? The beauty of design lies in the sensibility with which each designer interprets culture, develops a sense of place, and responds to each context with a language of their own, converting materials into designs that enhance how we live. Design residences from “Tropical Retreats” – produced by @pempki and published by @lannoopublishers

One of the things I take with me, after spending time inside very different residences, is how unique the idea of a home is for each one of us.   The more I see them all together, the more evident the display of creativity becomes to create a space that makes us feel like we belong to it. I realize what is common among these is that, for those who live inside, the combination of crafted textures, objects, and spaces makes them feel at home.   When I reflect on it, the first human-made “residential” structures were cone-shaped structures built to shield a burning fire in the center. The entire building was essentially a pitched roof, and the inhabitants could barely stand upright inside it. Houses have evolved from spaces to be sheltered in to places to live inside. And to me, it is the idea of the life we could develop inside that makes us see a home as a companion in our journey.   I’ve learned that for some, a home is dressed with ancient cloths in venerated reds. Entering requires stepping up stairs flanked by wolf-mouthed reindeers, and at first glance, the interior feels like a chest in a dim cave. For others, it is a wooden building that opens completely to immerse themselves in the creation of their hidden landscape. For some, a home is a place to be creative and experimental: where wooden logs — once old street poles — are made removable next to the corridor so the sculptures and designs they craft can move in and out freely. For others, it is a quiet life, surrounded by their animals and personal objects collected throughout their lives, and the sense of permanence makes the home feel immovable above the hillside slope.   From wall-less buildings to concrete structures, from people who gather memories others leave behind to those who let things go to make space for new creations, the notion of home is as varied as the lives we lead.   Self designed homes from “Tropical Retreats” — produced by @pempki and published by @lannoopublishers .

Tropical Retreats captures the creative and cultural movement of residential design on the island of Bali. Through a series of intimate portrayals, it explores how architecture and interior design have become vehicles of expression for a diverse generation of creators who have found in Bali not just a place to live, but a place to define who they are. The book is conceived in two chapters: the first presents four self-designed residences that explore the connection between the house and the individual who inhabits it — how space becomes an extension of oneself. The second presents two projects by six design studios that portray their design language and the evolving expression of contemporary tropical living on the island. It’s a visual and narrative journey into the idea of home — an exploration of how we build spaces that reflect our identity. #BruceCarpenter | @seba_mesdag | @bern_teo | @christian.graciel & @jerome_abel_seguin | @atelier_alejandro_borrego | @alexisdornier | @bada.studio | @blancostudio.bali & @kalpatarubali | @ibukubali | @studio_jencquel “Tropical Retreats” — produced by @pempki and published by @lannoopublishers .

“More than follies, the water gardens of the last Raja of Karangasem in eastern Bali are each a microcosm of the cosmos… Here, the ruler became the cakrawartin of Hindu-Buddhist cosmology: a god-king at the centre of the universe.” The Last King of Karangasem for @cabanamagazine | Words by @adihongtan

Maana | by @maanahomes in @openhousemagazine Words by @pattycastellar With appreciation to Hana, Irene, Erisa, Sherry & Inma

Courtyard Residence | by @palindakannangararchitects with landscaping by @vslalandscape in @archdigestindia Words by @msdivyamishra With appreciation to Sharat and Akhila

@arbasohotel | in @wallpapermag

“Returning to a place where one is already familiar with the elements that once engrossed his attention, seeing a mountain cast in the shadow of another like if the grass was back above our waist. Understanding something more from where I come from.” The long-lasting relationship with one’s landscape for @openhousemagazine With appreciation to Inma an Carissa for the insights.

Her | Designed by @blancostudio.bali & crafted by @kalpatarubali in @ignant Featured in the project landscaping by @seba_mesdag • bonsai by @bonsaiduma_bali Words by: @devidgualandris