Natural Flow

Jakarta-based studio Nataneka Arsitek embraces natural movement within a crisp, modernist package

- Patrick Kasingsing

Sukendro“Kendro” Priyoso and Jeffry Sandy, principals of Indonesian architecture studio Nataneka Arsitek, are not fans of the color white. Looking at the studio portfolio and visiting two of their projects makes this clear. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback about how my projects tend to be dark in color and texture. It is both personal preference and an effect of our studio’s practice to often leave the materials we use unpainted and natural,” Priyoso says.

This tactile character of Nataneka houses is no more evident than in Courtyard House in West Jakarta, whose dark, quiet presence recedes with a six-meter setback from a street of sundry two-story houses. Immediately apparent from outside is the dialogue between the materials and extruded forms at play in the house’s front façade and gate. A quilt of plaster, concrete, wood, glass and steel textures, resembling a Piet Mondrian painting, in the form of walls, louvers, openings, and overhangs, break down what would have otherwise been a hulking elevation. Further softening and shielding the 12-meter-high façade is a frangipani tree planted on a raised plinth. The house appears to be inward-looking and reclusive with just a handful of window openings upfront, that is, until one steps in and notices the void at its core.