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Architects: WEN Urban Office
- Area: 60 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Adrian Mulya
Text description provided by the architects. Gunung Sahari House is located in an urban high-density area in Central Jakarta on a 3-by-30-meter strip of land located between an existing house owned by the client's family and the main access street to the site. The architects are asked to design a single-occupancy house that includes all of the basic amenities and a studio space.
While the site is strategically located within the community with easy access to public transportation and facilities, the site's unique shape and narrow access point bring several challenges to the design process from determining spatial placement of programs to planning the construction process.
In the design process, the architects looked beyond function and budget; they looked to culture - not just forms or symbolism, but the client’s habit: How our client greets his guests, how he works, and essentially how he leads his daily life. Being a photographer, the client is an adventurer at heart. He asks for natural airflow and lighting in his private space where he does his work.
The ground floor is specified for public-semi public use: front porch to greet guests, kitchen and dining room that act as a connecting passage between the existing family house and the street. For privacy, the bedroom, studio space, and bathroom are located on the second floor.
Most of the building materials are locally sourced from the Jakarta region. The floor slab uses a ceramic-concrete composite construction system. The roofing system uses light asphalt-coated panels. These two systems are chosen to simplify transporting the materials to the project site. The interior is simple and practical yet full of flexibility with “pop-up” furniture and hidden storage compartments to maximize the use of space.
