Suta House Permata Hijau, Jakarta

Design by J. Budiman Architects

From the street, the Suta House appears quite modest, with large regular openings placed on an inconspicuous façade. Vegetation concealing its tall, coarsely textured plaster perimeter wall is spotlighted at night. A sturdy gate made of glassfiber reinforced ce-ment molded to look like stone forms a protective barrier.

The house centers around the main living room, an openspace equipped with modern furni-ture and decorated with eclectic antique items and a baby grand.

The restrained elegance of the Suta House, located in the élite Permata Hijau district of South Jakarta, is in charming contrast to many of the other upscale homes in the area. While the majority of surrounding houses are defined by two-story-high façades supported by Corinthian or Ionic columns, or make stainless steel railings their main focus, the Suta House, situated on a modest 450-square meterplot, is composed of simple geometric masses. Pragmatic composition of spaces in the house and their efficient utilization make the house both comfortable and spacious.

The living and dining areas occupy a single continuous space. A carved and painted work by Amrus Natal-sya, set on a coarse textured wall at the end of the dining area, forms an eye-catching backdrop to the elegant modern furniture, antiques, and ethnic decorative items that fill the open-plan room.

A baby grand occupies a small extension off the living area. Wooden blinds along one side of the room moderate the light, while the dining area opens to an informal breakfast patio and the garden at the back of the house. Above the dining table, made of a solid piece of wood supported on a cubical base, an off-white fabric stretched on a curved frame hides the lighting, at the same time forming a decorative element.

Section drawing of the house.

Making the most of the small site, the architects opted to locate the main and most public area of the house on the first (ground) floor facing the road, with the service areas, comprising the garage, kitchen, laundry, and servants’ quarters, in the basement below.The private spaces of the house, primarily the guest and family bedrooms, are arranged on an axis perpendicular to the main mass, on both the first and second floors.

A few well-chosen antique and ethnic objects make strong statements throughout the modern house.

The entrance to the house, accessed via a set of steps on the northeastern corner of the site, is located behind the main living space.Visitors entering the house do not directly intrude upon this space, but are diverted instead through a transitional corridor behind it, mimicking the function of the entrance foyer in traditional Indonesian homes.This corridor also allows the occupants of the house to come and go without disturbing the activities in the main living area.The arrangement thus maintains the clarity and purity of the living space, at the same time ensuring the privacy of its usage.

The symmetry of the master bathroom, with its two windows flanking a round mirror, two wooden chests on either side of a stand-alone lavabo, and matching hanging lights, is coun-terbalanced by the eclectic mixture of ethnic and modern elements.

Antique pieces combined with newly designed furniture that borrows from old styles decorate the spacious master bedroom. The modern office chair, a contemporary reproduction of the Aluminum Group Executive Chair originally designed in 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames, is combined with a super-realistic painting by Indo- nesian artist Rosid and old domes- tic objects to create a unique mix in the room. Moderating the light, Roman blinds give a veiled quality to the room. The warm ambience is enhanced by the wood parquet flooring and throwrug.

The main space, comprising an L-shaped open-plan dining area, sitting area, and adjoining music corner, wraps around a covered terrace with a table for casual dining. Beyond is the garden.This relatively public space directly faces the road but is shielded by full-length Venetian blinds on two sides. It is further protected from the outside by a row of thick piers that provides both a spatial and visual barrier as well as a perimeter wall.The dining area faces the road as well as the inner garden.

On the second floor, directly above the living area, the master bedroom forms a perpendicular secondary mass that extends to the back of the site.The master bedroom opens out on three sides: to an entrance skylight on the left, to a roof deck and garden on the right, and, through connect-ing doors, to the children’s bedrooms arranged behind the master bedroom on the same axis.The children’s bedrooms are also accessed via an outer corridor.

First (ground) floor plan.

The master bath- room and a whirlpool adjoin the deck.The entire second floor can be sealed off from the rest of the house if neces- sary, during which time the doors of the rooms can be left open with confidence. Even if the outer corridor is not closed, the internal connecting doors can be left open to allow immediate access to all the rooms. Directly below the children’s bedrooms, behind the main living area, are two guest bedrooms. In the same secondary mass, but in the basement below, is a music room and children’s playroom.

The same granite flooring— smoothly shiny inside, matte onthe outside—provides continuity and visually expands the space.

The enclosed wooden deck and grass-bordered pool off the master bedroom is the owners’ favorite lounging space. It is a handsome solution in a house with a relatively small land area.

The bedrooms on the first and second floors of the house look over a large garden on the southwest, which occupies about a quarter of the built-up area on the site.The Suta Residence epitomizes architect Jeffrey Budi- man’s dictum of creating highly liveable spaces within a relatively modest enclosure, in which the experience of the house is to be enjoyed when spending time living inside. The clear composition and designation of spaces allows for the creation of a compact and comfortable environment.

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