PT Artemi Zenith International
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Private residence · Semarang

Y House

White volumes on the street, all glass on the water.

Architect
Wiyoga Nurdiansyah Architects
System
FREMO Invisi & Contemporary
The street elevation at dusk: cantilevered white volumes over a stone base.
The street elevation at dusk: cantilevered white volumes over a stone base.

Y House keeps its good side for itself. From the road it is a stack of white slabs, offset and cantilevered over a base of grey stone, and the glazing sits far enough back under the overhangs that the elevation stays solid. Behind it the ground drops to a lap pool that runs the full length of the plan, held on the far boundary by a folded screen of dark perforated brick. Every principal room turns to that water. FREMO Invisi takes the sliding openings and FREMO Contemporary the fixed lights and doors, dark and slim against the white. After sunset the rooms are lit, the screen is uplit, and all of it comes back off the surface of the pool.

The White Volumes

From above the house is a set of white slabs turned against each other, one of them canting out at an angle over a glazed corner. Almost none of that shows from the road. The volumes present blank to the street, the glazing is held back under the overhangs, and mature trees are left standing in front of the lot. What you get from the pavement is a white object and a stone base. The openings that matter are all on the far side, where the ground steps down to the water and the folded brick screen runs the boundary.

From above: white slabs turned against each other, the pool behind.
From above: white slabs turned against each other, the pool behind.
The side court above the pool, behind its folded brick screen.
The side court above the pool, behind its folded brick screen.

Along the Water

The pool runs the length of the house, with the timber deck between the two, so the glazing arrives almost at the water with a metre or so to walk on. The living rooms open onto it the full width on Invisi sliding and the frames stay the same dark line the whole way along. Above them the white wall is cut by one long slot of glazing at high level. In the floor of the pool there are fibre-optic lights, so after dark the water fills up with stars.

The lap pool at night, the deck brought right up to the glazing.
The lap pool at night, the deck brought right up to the glazing.
The same water at dusk, the whole flank of the house lit.
The same water at dusk, the whole flank of the house lit.
The living room opens the full width; a slot of glazing runs above it.
The living room opens the full width; a slot of glazing runs above it.

The Long Inside

Inside, the plan resolves into one long corridor under a timber-batten ceiling, glazed to a planted court along one side and open to the living rooms on the other. The doors to the court fold right back and stack, so on a good evening the court and the corridor are a single space. At the far end a double-height void cuts through the section. From the upper level you look down past the pendants, through the glazing, to the pool.

The corridor under its timber ceiling, court glazing folded back.
The corridor under its timber ceiling, court glazing folded back.
Down through the void, past the pendants, to the pool.
Down through the void, past the pendants, to the pool.
Timber steps to the water, the brick screen uplit behind.
Timber steps to the water, the brick screen uplit behind.

Collaborators

Architect
Wiyoga Nurdiansyah Architects — opened in 2018, by which point he had been at it twenty years. Born in Bandung in 1981, Wiyoga Nurdiansyah read architecture at Parahyangan, spent six years at andramatin and eight more at SUB architects before working under his own name. His Rumah Swadaya took the main award at the IAI Jakarta awards in 2015; more recent houses include HDH House in Bogor and AT Pavilion in South Jakarta.

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