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For David Pfeiffer, Northwest Landscape Designer

Kudos for the Kudus House Garden My new home is Vashon Island, in Washington State. It’s a place where many threads of my personal history are woven together. Surprisingly, some of them are also knotted tight to the threads that bind my heart forever to Indonesia, where I lived for … Continue reading

Author : Susi
Comment Number : 1 Comment

Bali invasion

Interesting little spontaneous essay by “Joan of Bali” popped up in the comments section of one of my posts. Since it was “public” I take the liberty of reposting it here. Thanks Joan. “When I came here I saw a very different economy than I came from but I didn’t … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Concerns
Author : Susi
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Bali Not For Sale #notforsale

SITUASI SUSI JOHNSTON: Pelurusan Kesesatan dan Kesalahan Informasi

Tulisan ini berkaitan dengan masalah tanah dan rumah tinggal yang berada di Pererenan, Mengwi, Badung, yang sekarang menjadi objek sengketa antara Tety Carolina (mantan “nominee”) melawan Susi Johnston. Tety tanpa hak apapun Tety Carolina tidak memiliki hak apapun atas tanah tempat tinggal Susi. Dia hanya pernah “pinjamkan namanya” kepada Bruno … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Concerns , Design , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 2 Comments

Made Wijaya Puts Majapahit Style on the Map

The moment we’ve all been waiting for with bated breath has come at last. Made Wijaya’s Majapahit Style has been released (the party vid is here), and what a book it is. More than a book. Like Made’s earlier masterwork, The Architecture of Bali, it’s encyclopaedic and opens many doors … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Design , Ethnographica , Ornament
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 2 Comments

Dance Vibration – photography exhibition

Tomorrow! 29 March. An evening that will be remembered as “one of those moments” – – a “you should’ve been there” one. Talented photographer Doddy Obenk + important figures in traditional dance and performance. At Three Monkeys Sanur, 7pm. Note: Bring cash, credit card and checkbook. Acquire authentic fine art … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Design , Fine Art , Interiors
Author : Susi
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Jakarta environment

This seems like a step in the right direction. But the problems of environmental imbalance that affect the watersheds upstream of Jakarta are bigger than just a few dozen villas. It’s not just the upper elevations that affect the whole watershed; the lower elevations and flatter lands nearer the city … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
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Funkin’ the Foreshore: Potato Head Comes to the Beach in Bali

In case you were wondering what that big wall of old shutters is doing near the beach in Seminyak, it’s a multi-faceted development called Potato Head Beach Club brought to you by the makers of Potato Head Jakarta (above), a description-defying place that opened back in January 2009. The brainchild … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Design , Interiors
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 10 Comments

East Bali News: Sacred Mountain Sanctuary Reloaded

You may remember Emerald Starr and Ken Ballard’s Sacred Mountain Sanctuary in the Sidemen Valley. It was a pioneering eco-resort with an earnest emphasis on eco. Now it is being “reloaded” at last, by the Karma Resorts’ developer, Selected Estates of Asia.

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Design
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 2 Comments

Freaky Friday: Di3va Condotel Oozes into Kuta (Beware!)

Could Kuta possibly get any weirder than it is already? Yes! Here’s a new rubbery-looking condotel called the “Di3va” now almost complete on Jalan Raya Legian. It’s the first business project of a glam three-girl Jakarta music group of the same name (below, as seen on the Di3va hotel home … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 2 Comments

Roger W. Hollander, Irma Lake, and “Buffalo” Bill Gates

Last June I heard Bill Gates bought Irma Lake Ranch in Wyoming, the property of a dear friend of mine, Roger W. Hollander. I was happy to receive the news. I loved this place passionately, and will never forget the times that I spent there. Knowing the ranch remains in private hands is somehow heartening. … Continue reading

Author : Susi
Comment Number : 16 Comments

Living Modern: Embrace Time, Return to the Mountain

The recent mass mania for rigorous modernism has tended to vivisect what is most human in our homes, workplaces and public spaces. When the seminal modernist, Le Corbusier (above) declared, “a house is a machine for living in,” the operative word was living. The intention was to shape structures, spaces, … Continue reading

Author : Susi
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Tommy Soeharto Scores Ten Stories: What’s With That, Really?

This image comes from the website of the Pecatu Indah development which has engulfed Dreamland beach and everything around it in the Bukit Jimbaran area of south Bali. The endearing little erection here depicted, called modestly “The Terrace,” will reach to ten stories. Count ’em. Plus those “Rapunzel-Does-Denpasar” appendages on … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 3 Comments

Bali Quality Development: Alila Soori Survives in Tabanan

The Alila Soori project near Tanah Lot temple in Bali has had its challenges during development. Issues over land use (an opaque and intentionally obfuscating area of local law), and permitting (more opaque and more obfuscatory), had become a thorn in the side of the Alila development team. Well, breathe … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 1 Comment

A Bellwether Home Design that Changes with the Weather

Arch Daily has enlightened us yet again. This time with a report on the Tic-Tac House by Brazilian architects FGMF. I don’t like the name, but I guess in Portugese, it represents the sound of a ticking clock, and this house design involves movement like the hands of a clock. … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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Linda Garland’s Latest Superstar Estate in Architectural Digest

Linda Garland has daringly directed the design for director Rob Cohen’s new island retreat in the far east of Bali. In case you missed it in Architectural Digest, read the story with photos here. The district around of this rustic retreat on the shores of Seraya, is looking to become the … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali , Interiors
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 1 Comment

Housing Art by David Howell

When we made our own house here in Bali, housing art was a primary part of the design program. This priority makes specific demands that call for intelligent solutions, and when they are achieved, the result is far greater than the sum of the parts. The house, the art, and … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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Making Modernism Rich

What is called “modernism” in architecture can be a bit barren and over-blank. The term colloquially refers to almost anything that’s rigorously rectilinear and mostly unornamented. But it doesn’t have to mean aesthetic impoverishment. Frank Llloyd Wright understood this perfectly.  Case in point, the Bachman-Wilson House (1954) which has been … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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No Recent Posts on Architecture: wHY?

This blog has been entirely bereft of architecture posts for months. Why the dry spell? I haven’t seen much worth mentioning. The endless insensitive regurgitation of 20th century modernism doesn’t do it. Nor does the egomania of international celebrity architects who rode the wave of wacky overspending that brought us … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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Custom Furniture: 90% Perspiration

Last week was spent with two designers from Douglas Durkin Design, Greg Elich and Andrew Horn. They were in Bali to work on a collection of extraordinary custom furniture for a residence in Hawaii. For those of you who might imagine that creating high-end custom furniture is pure glamour, just … Continue reading

Author : Susi
Comment Number : 2 Comments

Vomitrocious III: Refrigerated Beach to be Built in Dubai

How disturbing to learn that the sand on the beach at the Palazzo Versace Dubai will be chilled. This mondo luxe development will refrigerate its beach using a network of buried pipes. It will also feature a chilled 820 square meter outdoor pool and a simulated marine environment called the “scuba … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
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Tagged on : hotels , overdevelopment

“Why are buildings in Bali so ugly?”

I’m often saddened when proudly showing friends around Bali, to be asked, “Why are the buildings in Bali so ugly?” Living here for so long, one tends to become numb to the pain of countenancing constant architectural eyesores. When I’m hit with the “ugly buildings” question, therefore, I have a … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 4 Comments

Pay Close Attention: Vladimir Djurovic Designs

O, ye tropical designers of Bali, we bid thee, pay close attention. It is not enough to be “minimalis” meaning just leaving off the ornament and being blank. When you go simple, the bones are exposed and the proportions, functions, and relation to nature must be right. Where is the … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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Q: Why Do Tropical Modern Houses Have to Be So White? A: They Don’t.

Architectural Digest (which normally makes me wince), has done it again – – not made me wince hard, two months in a row. The October issue features in its “Open Auditions” section on upcoming designers, a modern house in Arizona by Tennen Studio.  OMG! It’s not white! It’s a hot … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
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Quantum Leap: New Directions in Bali Architecture and Design

After yesterday’s post, here’s another glimpse into the future of residential and hospitality design in Bali. (Lots more pictures after the jump.) The first proposed project (below) is a series of villas on a slope facing the sea, with the challenge being how to give every house views without sacrificing privacy. … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
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A Haiku of a Home by Roy McMakin

Last week The New York Times featured a fabulous farmhouse by eccentric designer, Roy McMakin. The article aptly describes McMakin as an “artist-designer based in Seattle, famous for tweaking archetypes of domesticity, from wing chairs to cottages, and blurring the lines between art and architecture in a variety of captivating and … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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