Modern Bali Architecture Design: Everything You Need to Know

A villa in Bali — what comes to mind when you hear or read that phrase? If you’ve ever stayed at or visited a villa in Bali, you might picture a lush tropical atmosphere, the sound of trickling pool water, a sweeping view of green rice paddies, or an exotic night view of the open Indian Ocean from your bedroom. Indeed, villas in Bali are already world-renowned for their stunning atmosphere and views, along with friendly staff who make you feel like a VIP guest.

Or, you can also picture the atmosphere of a Bali villa by watching the following video:

Source: Alila Hotels

Villas in Bali generally follow modern Balinese architectural philosophy. If you take the time to browse our website and look through our design portfolio, you’ll notice a design/architectural style quite different from what’s typically found in Jakarta. Most of the design styles you’ll find in Jakarta lean toward modern minimalist, classic, and similar styles. We, however, specialize in a Modern Bali style — more precisely, Modern Tropical Bali — which draws heavily on the style of Bali’s villas. In this post, we want to share what modern tropical Bali design actually means and how we apply it in our own designs.

Balinese and Modern Balinese Architecture

Balinese architecture is an architecture passed down through generations in Bali. Modern Balinese architecture — a fusion of Balinese architecture with added modern elements — is a vernacular architectural style in which the architect or designer uses local materials to build structures and homes that reflect local tradition. Materials commonly used in Balinese homes and buildings include brick, coconut wood, thatched roofing, bamboo, teak, and natural stone. Many homes and luxury villas in Bali embody the true philosophy of Balinese architecture: making optimal use of nature to create man-made buildings with a relaxed, tropical atmosphere, so that Balinese houses and villas provide a home that’s in harmony with its environment.

Although today’s modern Balinese homes and private villas generally blend traditional and modern styles, Balinese architects still place Balinese architectural philosophy as the top priority. There are several philosophies within Balinese architecture, but one we currently adopt is the philosophy that a house has a head, body, and legs, resembling a human being.

The “Head” refers to the building’s roof, the “Body” refers to the building’s body, and the “Legs” refer to the elevated base we build along with its columns. Balinese architecture is also closely associated with added ornamentation such as carvings and statues on parts of the house like the roof and columns. The modern adaptation of Balinese architecture mainly lies in reducing or removing carved ornamentation and using natural stone suited to the region where the house will be built.

This Balinese design with modern elements has an advantage, since not everyone loves the traditional Balinese house style. This adoption of modern Balinese design can also be seen in the façade, which blends in a minimalist style. For the tropical element, we combine natural stone, wood, and glass with wide openings. The goal is to maximize natural lighting and ventilation in every room, so that the use of air conditioning can be minimized. The tropical element can also be seen in the use of eaves (tritisan), a roof feature closely associated with tropical architecture.

Applying the Modern Bali Style to Specific Parts of the House

Here are a few applications of Modern Bali design in our own designs:

Roof

Hip Roof Application

For roofing, we mostly use a hip roof (limasan) shape, in keeping with Balinese and tropical designs that commonly use this form. The roof pitch typically ranges from 35 to 60 degrees. For the modern adaptation of the roof, Balinese ornaments such as the murda and ikut celedu finials are omitted from this roof form. So the roof shape becomes simpler compared to the traditional Balinese style.

Neck (Leheran)

Leheran Application

The leheran, or “neck,” is adopted for aesthetics and as a complement to the roof. Following the human-body philosophy in Balinese architecture, there’s a neck between the head and the body.

Building Body

In the body of the building, we incorporate natural stone elements much like traditional architecture, though not in a purely Balinese style. Traditional Balinese architecture typically uses paras stone, brick, and coral stone. In our application, we modernize this by using andesite, serai stone, and Palimanan stone. As for the natural stone itself, we source it locally — for projects specifically in Jakarta and outside Bali, we more often use andesite masonry since this stone is relatively easy to find.

Natural Stone (Andesite) Application on the Building Body

Pepalihan, or you could call it the “moulding” on the building body, serves to beautify the structure and represents a Balinese element symbolizing buana agung (the macrocosm), the middle realm, and the microcosm, in keeping with the Tri Angga philosophy (read more here). It consists of a large section and a smaller section, sized at half the large one.

Pepalihan Application

Carved paras-stone ornamentation to strengthen the Balinese feel

Carving Application

The angkul-angkul is the distinctive entrance gate of a Balinese building, which we’ve given a more modern, simplified form compared to the angkul-angkul found in traditional Balinese design.

Angkul-Angkul Application

Pillars (Saka) symbolize sturdy “legs.” They typically consist of wood on top and stone at the base to support the wood.

Pillar/Saka Application

For the interior, we apply thicker natural-stone ornamentation, for instance behind a TV cabinet, or add carvings elsewhere in the interior such as in the dining and living rooms.

Ornament Application in the Interior

That concludes our article on Modern Bali Architecture Design: Everything You Need to Know. If you want a dream home with a Bali-villa-like feel, we’re here to help you achieve it. That’s also in keeping with one of the philosophies of Balinese-style architecture: creating harmony and balance with the surrounding nature. Lastly, if you’d like to learn more about our design services, you can visit our portfolio page and the design service procedure below.