Pranala Associates Reimagines A Tropical Home In West Java

“The client brief was to create a low-maintenance design, but the real challenge was in preserving the original layout,” the architects explain. With this as their basis, Pranala Associates renovated and refurbished around 85% of the former house to create a modern take on a more traditional home. Built from cast concrete, ulin wood, and steel bars, the ‘Hikari House’ is bright, airy and cool. Hikari (光), translates from Japanese to mean light: and the house has been reimagined in honor of the natural brilliance of the sun in Indonesia, capturing the passage of natural light throughout the day.

Structured around internal courtyards and a luscious enclosed garden, bi-fold doors that open to these outdoor areas allow a merging of spaces. Along with the architectural design of the space, the landscaping has been developed to emphasize the connection between indoors and outdoors. When viewed from the living room, the rounded grass hill in the yard sits at eye level. The cactus garden, visible from the dining room, offers a painterly experience of nature: a slat roof illuminates the plants in stripes.