Earth Lines draws on vernacular materials and forms for Bali home
Indonesian studio Earth Lines has created Hilltop, a house in Bali with a palette of reclaimed native woods and sheltered from the sun and rain by an oversized gable roof.
Located in Uluwatu, the 280-square-metre home replaces a derelict building on a site with dramatic views across the ocean and surrounding forests.
According to Earth Lines, it was the client's love of the ultra-luxury Aman Resorts in Japan that informed the pared-back and local material palette of timber and stone.
The exposed nature of the site also makes it subject to strong wind, rain and sun, which led the studio to shelter the home beneath an oversized gable roof, braced by ornamental timber supports informed by the region's traditional architecture.
"The owner loved the architecture and interiors of the Aman Resort, so we knew we needed to design something very minimalist that represented modern Indonesia – inspired by vernacular elements and using only native materials," Earth Lines co-founder Abbie Labrum told Dezeen.
"A restrained palette allows proportion, shadow and texture to be prioritised, creating a timeless architectural language rooted in regional material traditions."
The three levels of Hilltop are organised around a skylit, sculptural teak staircase that leads to an open-air terrace, tucked within a portion of the large roof.
On the ground floor, a living, dining and kitchen area occupies a smaller footprint to carve out space for a large decked terrace, which is sheltered beneath the overhang of the floors above and the deep roof eaves.
Above, a larger main bedroom and three accompanying bedrooms are positioned across the first and second floors, with those at the front opening out onto a balcony and the upper terrace through sliding glass doors.
"Though it's a small layout, the stairway void helps to generate a lot of spatial volume and the journey is complemented by exceptional views, so everything feels very spacious," Labrum explained.
"Deep, exaggerated roof overhangs that extend beyond conventional proportions shield the building from peak sun and intense storms while allowing evening light to penetrate beneath the roofline," Labrum added.
"A vernacular-inspired, ornamental support known as a konsol was used to brace the oversize cantilever roof."
A mixture of reclaimed teak and native ulin wood defines Hilltop's material palette, with thin planks of the darker teak used on the exterior and paler ulin lining the interiors.
In the bathrooms, the walls and floors are lined with dark, textured Pantera stone, while petrified wood and river stone have been used for sinks and teak encloses the bathtubs.
"All of the selected wood is old and reclaimed from structures that once existed elsewhere in Indonesia and were taken down and repurposed into wood finishings," Labrum said.
"The diverse group of specialists and artisans who contributed to the build are a living legacy, unique for their knowledge and history of crafts that are becoming exceedingly rare in other indigenous parts of Indonesia," she added.
Elsewhere in Bali, architecture studio MORQ and interior design office Studio Wenden recently designed the Further Hotel in Pererenan, creating a series of buildings finished with lattice-like facades of handmade clay bricks, and Alexis Dornier created a ring-shaped villa that references a James Bond film.
The photography is by Tommaso Riva.
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