Houzz Tour: Indigenous Design Shapes This Balinese Home
A simple, sustainable retreat nestled at the foot of a Bali mountain is now home to a British expat who has adopted the Balinese way of life
Jeni Lee
10 September 2016
A former London city slicker, Simon Evans made the move from an urban apartment to this Indonesian tropical home among the trees. He worked with local company Bali GreenWorld to design and build his new home – a two-storey, 35-square-metre structure made entirely out of locally sourced materials. He cleared out all the dividing walls on the top storey to create a full 360-degree view of the surrounding forest. “Words fail me when it comes to describing the extreme natural beauty surrounding me, and the unbelievable generosity, warmth and kindness of the local people,” says Evans.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Simon Evans
Location: Mount Batukaru, Bali, Indonesia
Size: 35 square metres (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom)
That’s interesting: All the building’s sustainable materials were gathered within about 3km of the house
A food forest, maintained and owned by members of the local village, surrounds the home. The house’s open architecture allows the endless stream of passersby from the village to stop for a friendly chat. “I do not worry about security at all, as there is always someone from around the area to keep an eye on what’s going on,” says Evans. “It is a complete contrast with London, where I locked my windows every night for fear of being broken into.”
Who lives here: Simon Evans
Location: Mount Batukaru, Bali, Indonesia
Size: 35 square metres (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom)
That’s interesting: All the building’s sustainable materials were gathered within about 3km of the house
A food forest, maintained and owned by members of the local village, surrounds the home. The house’s open architecture allows the endless stream of passersby from the village to stop for a friendly chat. “I do not worry about security at all, as there is always someone from around the area to keep an eye on what’s going on,” says Evans. “It is a complete contrast with London, where I locked my windows every night for fear of being broken into.”
A bench seat created from recycled boat wood faces out to the food forest. Bamboo blinds serve as walls on both storeys of the house and can be tied down if the wind picks up. “If it gets cold or I feel like a bit of privacy, dropping the blinds changes the house entirely,” Evans says. “When my blinds are open, you really are in the middle of it all – the rainforest and Mount Batukaru to the north, with a view down the sea to the south.”
Upstairs, Evans’s office consists of a laptop and a beanbag overlooking the forest. “Living here is like a dream,” he says. “The design of my house really allows me to experience all of nature up close.”
Evans put his bed on a raised platform in the centre of the top floor, giving him a 360-degree forest view. Carefully managing the flow of water around the property has eradicated most areas where mosquitoes can easily reproduce, so there’s no need for walls and windows.
The top storey has a lounge area with simple day beds for relaxing with a book or just enjoying the view.
It’s no surprise that this oasis has convinced Evans to stay in Bali. “Although London has so much to offer, the price of living in a metropolis is a lack of immediate community; it felt very anonymous living there,” he says. “Having now lived in an extraordinarily close community, I would find it very hard to give up that closeness.”
It’s no surprise that this oasis has convinced Evans to stay in Bali. “Although London has so much to offer, the price of living in a metropolis is a lack of immediate community; it felt very anonymous living there,” he says. “Having now lived in an extraordinarily close community, I would find it very hard to give up that closeness.”
Linda Van’t Hoff, a local expat and a designer at Bali GreenWorld, enjoys a cup of tea with Evans on the bottom storey. Having lived in the area for 20 years, she knew how to design the house to fit in with the local environment. “From the bamboo and rocks that form the frame, through to the tali ijuk – the string used to tie the bamboo – which was handmade from local palm tree fibres, everything that could be locally sourced was,” Evans says.
Local fruit and flowers provide splashes of colour to the minimalist and clutter-free interior. “It’s a beautiful feeling inside Simon’s house,” Van’t Hoff says. “It’s a bit like being in a bamboo grove, with the warm yellow tones of the bamboo dominating the space in a very natural and peaceful way.“
The roof, made up of 30,000 shingles, was the most laborious part of this project and took the longest. Each shingle had to be made, cleaned, treated and placed individually. The massive amount of these handmade pieces meant that much of the work had to be outsourced to surrounding villages.
“It was a spectacular process to witness,” says Evans of the roof-building exercise. “The piles of shingles appearing outside each family compound and lining the local roads were a constant reminder of not only the scale of the project, but also the ease with which the local Balinese people work together.”
Evans had all of the locally sourced bamboo treated onsite with boric acid. To ensure that bugs stay out of the bamboo, he occasionally smokes the house with a portable fireplace.
The ground-floor kitchen is open to the elements. Evans often cooks using food he's grown on his own patch of land. "Every week I am able to reduce the amount of food I need to buy, with well over 50 edible plants already growing organically on my land, and more gardens and food plants being added weekly," he says.
The home's only fixed walls surround the ground-floor bathroom. Bamboo shutters open directly into the garden. A nearby spring feeds the Bali rock bowl and bamboo tap.
The house is set about 100 metres from one of the entrances to a protected rainforest. Its presence stops poachers from entering the forest unnoticed and prevents off-road biking and other damaging activities.
The house’s shape mirrors the silhouette of Mount Batukaru behind. The home sits on 2000 square metres of land, which used to be primarily a coffee grove. Now the land hosts a wide variety of fruit trees, vegetables and other useful plants, including Western salad leaves and herbs.
TELL US
What do you find most striking about this house? Share in the Comments section.
TELL US
What do you find most striking about this house? Share in the Comments section.
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Wow, living in the tropics, I know of all the bugs, insects, different types at different times of year. How on earth do these people do it? At night especially when all kinds of things start crawling around. I figure men can handle it, but women?!
I'm a little late to the party; but what an incredibly beautiful and humble lifestyle! Well done Simon. The true sustainable-ist: low embodied energy, engaging local industry, humble, 'enough'. My father is Papua New Guinean-born (Lae) and is working towards being a bi-annual Aceh resident. This would be his ideal lifestyle - thank you for providing the inspiration!