Indonesia-based design studio Jencquel designed this beautiful 3-bedroom home, the Rumah Purnama, which means “The House of the Full Moon” in Bahasa Indonesia, a heritage Balinese Santillan home. The restoration process revealed a series of regenerations of homes on the site, with elements in the foundation possibly going back over 100 years. Renovations lasted for 12 months, until early August 2019. The two-story building faces East and embraces the Moon as it rises, spectacularly and often, in the horizon from behind the jungle-covered hills.
A small, unpretentious Balinese door known traditionally as ankle-ankle marks the entrance to this estate. Past its threshold lies a beautiful garden path winding within a park-like setting, leading to a bamboo-lined staircase which carries one downstairs and through a Zen stone pebble garden surrounded by bamboo plants; and ultimately to the front door. Seen from the outside, Rumah Purnama seamlessly blends into nature, in great part due to the combination of natural materials, such as the tropical wood and the cogongrass roof. The mainframe of the house is concrete below, and an upper structure built with the Indonesian hardwood Bangkirai.
During the restoration process, Maximilian Jencquel intentionally kept the original structure intact in order to preserve what could be considered an artistic legacy of Ubud’s heritage that this Campuhan abode from the 1930s represents. Entering the hillside home on the main floor of the pagoda-like Santillan through a tamarind-wood front door of bleached chocolate hues, one is greeted by the friendly smiles of elongated, Giacometti-Esque, ironwood statuettes sourced from the island of Kalimantan in Borneo.
This welcoming entrance hall is a transitional space acting as a mediator between the main living room, the dining room, the kitchen, the guest room, the powder room, and the staircase that leads to the first floor. The color palette is natural, earthen, and simple; leaving plenty of room for the creativity and color of the mind. The natural hardwoods, alang-alang grass, earthen wall coloring, and off-white linens and marbles create a calm, grounded feeling. All functions of the house are laid out under one roof, allowing for comfortable access to all rooms and spaces on both floors, even in the most tropical of rains.
Photo by Tommaso Riva
Styling by Lisa Scapin