Limasan House

The client entertains often. However, he also after privacy, intimacy & comfort. Javanese house has strict rules when it comes to floor-plan. It restricted us a lot in what we can and can't do. Some are not practical to be implemented in modern day of living; but he wanted to adhere these rules and incorporating them to present lifestyle. The house had poor air-circulation and natural sunlight due to negligible openings/windows. Despite the generous size, it felt dark, stuffy & claustrophobic. Being made out of timber, there were lots of structural timber columns every 2-4meters apart which limit the view and space.

Internally, the house is revolved around the stunning cathedral style timber ceiling. We decided this needs to be the hero of the interior. To create a clear & simplistic look, we cladded some row of columns into built-ins and created room separations where the columns are located. We exposed a few structural beams and timber walls as design statement. The original stained-dark teakwood was kept to give an authentic, inviting & intimate feels contrasting with light custom-made furnishings & upholstery. We enlarged some timber window-walls and replaced them with a full sized timber windows to maximise the natural lights and air circulation.

From the outside, it is a humble traditional Javanese limasan house, but once we stepped inside, it's a journey to a new design. It showed how a heritage limasan house can be redesigned internally to fit the client's brief to entertain guests whilst maintaining the privacy of the client's. It gave a heavily ancient rule restricted endowment house a new breath of life into modern living which not only comfortable, aesthetically pleasing but also still following the tradition. It ticked the boxes from the client's & heritage perspective. A traditional house with strong roots and nod to modern living.

It had large open veranda & private residential behind it separated by handcrafted timber wall paneling. The front veranda is a large pavilion built on timber columns, open on all sides. It provides shelter from the sun and rain, but allows breeze and indirect light. It fulfilled the client's brief as a versatile space to entertain. The high ceiling point in the house collected the rising hot air ensuring the lower living area stayed cool. In the past, keeping out the light inside the house meant providing many dark corners where spirits could feel at home; hence why the windows were minimal. This does not bode well with current lifestyle especially post pandemic where air circulation and natural lights are vital part in house design. The used of waste materials and recycling antique furnitures. A lot of custom furnishing were made from recycled materials sourced from the house itself when we replacing/restoring items in it. We've also restored the client's antique furnitures throughout and placed them respectfully in the house. We maximised the north-south openings in the bedrooms to ensure that good air circulations provided. The bedroom's ensuites have identical ensuites with skylight.