Book review: "Ahmett Salina House and Studio" at The New Indonesian House by Robert Powell

The Ahmett Salina and Studio continues a long tradition in Southeast Asia working from home, a sustainable practice that reduces transport costs and the use of non-renewable resources.

The owners of the house are both graphic designers

who required a small office/design studio to be integrated with their dwelling.

The dialogue between the living and working areas is the essential driver of the brief.

To preserve the privacy of the domestic area, vertical and horizontal zoning is introduced. The ground floor is designated as the working are/design studio and the upper floor as the living quarters for a small family.

There is also a private area for the owners at the rear of the building.

The front of the house, which overlook a small landscape public park,

is designated the public zone.

The “big idea” in the design is the horizontally hinged opening screen on the public façade, which allows the whole of the home-office to be opened up to the forecourt to create a huge indoor/outdoor space for social functions and academic events.

The screen incorporates a “breathing skin” of cut bamboo sections,

assembled without nails that project out from a steel frame.

This is an inspired climatic responses employing sustainable material.

Conceptually, the screen is seen as having “pores” that allow the house to breathe.

Sunlight is filtered by the screen so that the internal temperature is lowered.

The area between the screen and the house is used as a veranda and smoking area.

Pradono is a passionate advocate of the use of bamboo, and other work by his practice exploring the use of this material has been published in international journals.

The finished dwelling is vulgar but is perfectly comfortable

and it is an affordable replicable model for other young business partners.

The ground floor is slightly cluttered with all the paraphernalia of a modern office-glass-topped worktable,

a cluster of apple Macintosh computers, a designer bicycle,

the ubiquitous water dispenser and a customer/client reception area-together with a neon sign building staff and visitors to “change yourself”. An open-riser staircase with cantilevered treads leads to the private zone, while the living and working spaces are visually connected by a void alongside the stairs.....

This book is written by Robert Powell and photographs by Albert Lim

by Tuttle Publishing available at Periplus

ISBN: 9780794604998