Residential architecture, particularly for the tropics, is a matter of great importance to the Sleeping Tiger on the Island of Bali. Here is a simple, efficient, affordable home design which has been getting a great deal of buzz. Built in the non-tropical region of Santiago, Chile, the Biehl House by Jorge Garcia and Daniel Rojo is a splendid inspiration for all manner of tropical and temperate homes. Keep it simple, but make it beautiful, and consumption-driving trends be damned. Let that be a manifesto for our age.
Here is a 95 square meter house that is sensitive to its surroundings, and is more than worthwhile to consider and study. Can we make a Bali adaptation to moderate the insensitive “villa-fication” of the island’s hinterlands, perhaps? Why not try it with reclaimed local wood, local craftsmen’s joinery, oriented to the sun and seasons appropriately? I await the first Bali adaption, eagerly. If you don’t do it, I just might. Light on the land, standing on stilts, shaded where shade should be, inviting the landscape in. Makes sense here, not just in Chile.
Footnote: the Chilean architecture site where I found this is more than worth your Blueline bandwidth to browse. Don’t dismiss the antipodes. Don’t be xenophobic. The world is wide and it’s not all American or French.
