"Spike", a natural hardwood sculpture by Carola Vooges.
the new tropical internationalism
At the cusp of the new millennium, thousands of foreigners, many of whom are engaged in some kind of artistic activity, have made Bali their home. From Sayan to Sanur, Kintamani to Kuta, a new cosmopolitanism flourishes. This influx, from both the West and East, arrives on Bali's shores literally by the day. No longer in search of the utopian idyll as were earlier travellers, such people create a craft studio, oil an import-export business, open an artisanal workshop, and join the dream-home building boom. Feeding off the innate creativity of the Balinese and bringing new technologies and ideas from outside, they design, reinterpret and rework the much-touted concept of 'Bali style'.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the fields of architecture and interior design. As with their predecessors, who started coming to the island in the 1930s, these newcomers have a lifestyle that revolves around a heady combination of tropical indoor-outdoor living, island charm and artistic endeavour. But there are some significant differences in the application of their creativity- it's a case of 'Bali style' growing up, leaving home (literally as well as metaphorically) and transforming into what can be termed 'new tropical internationalism'.
The corridor linking the dining room and the sleeping quarters in Joost van Grieken's house.
The guest living room in a Japanese art lover's home looks out to a sun-dappled garden.
A large handmade glass plate sculpture by Seiki Torige.
Yesteryear's thatched huts have become today's highly marketable garden estates. All over the island, exciting collaborations between Balinese building techniques and contemporary vision have produced new dream-homes of startling originality. Increasingly, there is a challenging dualism between tradition and modernity, organic materials and metals or plastics, high-tech components and crafted-by-hand accessories. Manual techniques of vernacular construction could sit awkwardly beside pre-fab technology, but by tapping into t rends from outside rather than from within Bali, and by taking advantage of the island's plentiful materials, villas are created that speak volumes about the island's architectural journey. Quality is the catchword, 'Bali-based' the buzzword.
Handmade glass dinner set comprising plates, glasses and candle holders by Seiki Torige.
This book showcases a selection of private houses, art galleries and restaurant that best illustrates this concept of new tropical internationalism'. The structures certainly exist apart from—and beyond—the traditional Balinese architectural legacy, even if craft-based touches remain. There are homes with Japanese Zen influences, a restored 150-year-old Toba Batak house with a modern interior, a new villa born from Spanish colonial inspirations in the same compound as a 19th-century Joglo pavilion. Wooden shingles from Borneo and local merbau and bengkerai woods mix and mingle with metal, steel and plastic. Strong lines and geometric forms sometimes replace the softer along along roofs. The variety is in the architectural style; the unity comes in the fact that the buildings all somehow display a contemporary aesthetic.
View of the swimming pool from the living area in Edith Jesuttis's Spanish-style villa.
Purple and cherry red tones dominate in this bedroom designed by Dean Kempnich. On the headboard is a Sumbawa stone elephant mounted on wooden base; the oil and acrylic painting is by local artist Made Kembar.
None of this, of course, is entirely new. Today's designers, new-age spa operators, glass blowers and healer-potters simply represent another wave of sun-seekers in search of that elusive island magic. The intrepid travellers of the '30s found the attraction of the island then much as it is today. European artists, such as painters Walter Spies and Rudolph Bonnet, were lured by the exotic to tuck up with the Tjokorde of Ubud. They set up studio and gave birth to a creatively prolific artistic melange of both assimilation and exchange. Others followed, primarily in the fields of painting, sculpture, dance and music.
The huge bedroom in a Japanese artist's home showcases an ancient Javanese bed, a richly coloured, patterned Indian carpet, a primitive wooden bench, and an ancestral statue from Borneo.
Later, in the '60s and 70s, another wave of often-disillusioned Westerners, this time on the hippy trail, found refuge in the island's mysticism, its peaceful Hindu population and its sarong-clad, sunny lifestyle. Many started small cottage industries-those that survived are the forebears of today's design conglomerates.
These high-flying enterprises
