PT Artemi Zenith International
← All projects

Private residence · Jakarta

SK House

A long house, opened along its whole length.

Architect
Han Awal & Partners
Interior
Genius Loci
System
TECHNAL Topaze
From the pool terrace at dusk — the upper floor carried out over the garden.
From the pool terrace at dusk — the upper floor carried out over the garden.

SK House is long and low, set well back behind trees on a Jakarta street. Its upper floor is carried out over the garden as a single horizontal band, faced in timber and cut open with TECHNAL Topaze in long horizontal runs rather than separate windows. The ground floor beneath is almost all glass, and the main rooms open the full width of the plan to a pool and a green wall. From the road the house gives away nothing. From inside it gives away everything.

The Elevation

From the street the house arrives in layers: a timber-clad upper storey, a recessed middle, a screened wall at ground level, and mature trees left standing in front of the lot. The glazing sits deep behind the timber. That keeps the sun off the glass, and it keeps the elevation looking like a solid object rather than a display case.

The street elevation, behind the trees left standing.
The street elevation, behind the trees left standing.
The same elevation, from the road.
The same elevation, from the road.

Open to the Garden

Inside, the plan turns and faces the garden along its whole length. The living room opens the full width to the pool and a green wall on Topaze sliding. The dining room is glazed down its long side. Upstairs, the lounge does it again. Because the frames stay the same slim dark line throughout, the openings belong to one family instead of being a collection of different windows, and that is most of why a house this big stays calm.

The living room, opened the full width to the pool.
The living room, opened the full width to the pool.
The dining room, glazed along its long side.
The dining room, glazed along its long side.
The upper lounge, glazed on two sides.
The upper lounge, glazed on two sides.

Arrival, and After Dark

The approach runs down one flank of the house, between the timber wall and the boundary, lit low from the ground, and finishes in a hall of stone and timber. After sunset the glazing does its usual second shift. It stops being a surface, and becomes the way you read the building from the garden.

The side approach, lit low from the ground.
The side approach, lit low from the ground.
The garden path at dusk.
The garden path at dusk.
The entrance hall, in stone and timber.
The entrance hall, in stone and timber.

Collaborators

Architect
Han Awal & Partners — the Jakarta practice founded by Han Awal (1930–2016), among Indonesia’s foremost conservation architects. Trained at Delft and in Munich, he is the hand behind the restorations of the National Archives Building, the Jakarta Cathedral and the old Javasche Bank — work that earned a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award, and a practice that has carried his name since.
Interior
Genius Loci — Alex Bayusaputro’s pan-Asian practice; interiors built around the spirit of place.

More work

Talk to us