Mobile Menu

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 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
Bali: How Much Is Too Much

OVERDEVELOPMENT IN BALI: WEB WATCHDOG WINS 100,000 SUPPORTERS

The Facebook-based web page Bali: How Much Is Too Much? passed a major milestone today, by reaching over 100,000 participants. A defiantly non-commercial page, it began at the end of 2013 to expose the sheer scale and quantity of tourism development engulfing the paradise island of Bali. Since then it … Continue reading

Filled under : Bali , Concerns
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 1 Comment
Bali Not For Sale #notforsale

The Susi Johnston Situation: Death to Nominee Scams

Here’s an update on the very intriguing situation I have been thrown into, and have navigated faithfully for the past two years. A three-page summary of the news to date (and the background of this regrettable situation) can be downloaded by clicking here: Susi Johnston Situation (3.5MB – Be patient.)

Filled under : Bali , Concerns , Uncategorized
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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

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
Comment Number : 1 Comment

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
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

Tropical Modern Master : Ossipoff

Tropical residential design for a changing world is a topic we pursue with a passion. In this pursuit it has been impossible to overlook Vladimir Ossipoff, hailed as the master of Hawaii modernism. His principles and programs for creating homes that manifest an enlightened approach to appropriateness, aesthetics and comfort … Continue reading

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

Simple Affordable Tropical Home?

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 … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Bali
Author : Susi
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

Barragan Fountain Found in LA

The LA Times reports that a courtyard fountain by Louis Barragan has been “found” at a 1927 house in Beverley Crest. The house was built in 1927, and fifty years later when the swimming pool was re-concepted, Barragan was commissioned to create a dramatic waterfall-fountain flowing into it. The house … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
Comment Number : No Comment Yet

MOMA vs TOMA: Comparing Prefab Tropical House Concepts

There is buzz aplenty about the prefab housing show at MOMA (Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, 20 July to 20 October). So much buzz that there’s no point in buzzing more here, except where there are elements that touch on tropical design and living. And there are. Among them, the reappearance … Continue reading

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

World’s Coolest Houses and We’re Not Talking Arctic Here

The Coolhunter, a wildly-popular design blog, is at this very moment compiling its second book, The World’s Coolest Houses for December release. It’s sure to be a dizzying compendium of highly unusual homes.  Says Bill Tikos (the Coolhunter himself), “The houses we want must think like Zaha Hadid who said … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture , Design
Author : Susi
Comment Number : No Comment Yet