What an Introvert’s Home Really Looks Like: Solid on the Outside, Full of Voids Inside

Hi guys, welcome back to NB Bricks. I'm William and right now we're in Bintaro. We're going to do a house tour at a home with an introverted feel, as you can see behind me. See, the openings are minimal but it actually feels spacious. This is a creation by Sanawa Studio called AA House. Before we go inside, let's talk about the facade first. Okay, even from here we can already see it. All the details of the house here are custom made to match the owner's character. From the facade, the facade uses dark materials and also from the carport itself, it can fit about two cars. Now in the carport area, we're also covered by a canopy, a transparent canopy. Now here it is. I want to invite you to take a look at the details here. This detail is set farther back underneath to keep wind-driven rain out. That's a really interesting detail. Now before we go inside, let's talk about the garden first. We can see it's not just serving as a boundary here, but there's also vent blocks underneath. Maybe it's also for seating, for relaxing, maybe chatting with guests. This part here, usually houses use barbed wire, right? But this one, there's a new design solution. Interesting. So it's used in a maybe it doesn't look tall and messy, but it's kind of hidden inside. Now in the carport area, on the left side, there's a closed area. This is the service area. There's access to the service area. So maybe if you just finished shopping, you can go straight to the kitchen area here. And also the maid can have a room here. Okay, for the main access, we can see here that the about the door material itself before we go inside. This is GRC material finished with textured paint. So it matches the facade material. Okay, now let's go inside. Okay, now we're already in the inner foyer area. And this area to my left is for taking off your shoes. Maybe you can also use the storage to put your shoes. It's finished with HPL as well. And behind me, that's the storage area. It might be messy. So yeah, this is the storage area. Okay. So when we enter, we're immediately greeted by this slatted screen. It has a wood look. And it also gives an impression maybe before you enter, there's a bit of a reveal. Before we go in, there's also a step up right here. Yes, there's a raised part. So AC Tech also likes to play with elevation, we go up and then later we'll go down as well. Okay, before we go to that area, we'll go to this area first. This is the guest room. So this is the guest room. It's quite spacious. You can get it. There's a big window. There's also an opening on this side. And this opening gives you a direct view of the front garden. The air can also flow naturally here. Okay, next there's a room for the bathroom. Here's the bathroom. Actually, it's usually a powder room. But this is big enough to not be called the powder room. The bathroom itself also has a dark color tone. It's also more intimate. And interestingly, they added lines like this to give it an accent. There's also an opening to the void that we'll see later. Okay, but before that, let's take a look here. There's also a nice finish on the sink area. Interesting, right? Usually that's in the front area, but this one is on the side. Okay, next, before we go to the living room, the material is also interesting, guys. So this uses natural stone. And actually, there's a mix of materials here by the stairs. There's also gravel here. That's right. So it ends up showing the direction towards the two voids of this inner garden. Earlier from the front, it looked closed off. But here, it starts to open up. There's a sense of openness. Okay, come here. Let's take a look. This is the living area. The living area. Going down, it starts to feel more intimate because this is the area for activities, for watching TV, even the walls themselves. Concrete, concrete. You can see it goes from the outside all the way inside. Besides the void on the left earlier, there's also one at the back. Well, maybe because the shape of the land isn't a perfect rectangle. So it can be used like this, the open area at the back. So you also get lighting on all sides. And even the airflow is good. So if possible, you don't need to use AC here. Okay, let's go to the dining area now. Here, the dining area is a bit elevated. And the kitchen area is also here. This uses a wood finish. There are also mosaic tiles used for the island. And granite is used for the top finish. Very warm. It looks warmer inside. And it's also finished with HPL. And do you know what's on top of this? Can you guess what material is used on top of this? This uses woollen wood, my friends. So it really does look a bit more reddish. So the warm impression really comes out. As you can see here, the kitchenette is all finished with HPL. The HPL is from Frantico. Actually, it will be used throughout the whole house. And later, I'll mention which ones use Frantico HPL. Earlier, the credence under the TV also uses HPL. Okay, next we're going to take a look. Turns out there's something a bit hidden too. Earlier, there was access from outside. There's also access from inside. So this is the access to the service area. That's what the architect said too. The house is divided into two zones. Did you understand? So the one on the right side, the right side of the house is all living area. And on the left side, this is the service corridor. This is what I mentioned earlier. This is the access from outside. This is the service access from outside. The material is the same too. DRC. And this is what I mentioned earlier, the maid's room area. And the maid's room has its own bathroom right here. Now over in that area, that's the service kitchen. The whole service kitchen is over here. And the good thing is right here, you get a skylight here so it feels bright. It doesn't feel stuffy either because this also has direct access to the laundry area upstairs. We'll go to that area later. The stairs are really interesting. They're custom made too using steel tubing. You get access to the laundry area. Okay, let's go up now. Let's see what's upstairs. Alright guys, before we go upstairs, I want to highlight one thing. Earlier in the void area, one of them has a seating area right here. So we can sit here too. For those who want to relax later, you can also chat with guests here. Maybe this area can also be used as a smoking area or maybe just for gathering. So you can enjoy the mosquitoes and the nature as well. Okay, before we go upstairs, one more time. We're going to talk about the stairs, okay? But before that, let's go. Okay, well, you can also see this from below through the opening. It really highlights the stairs. The railing is especially interesting. It's custom made as well. So it gives a light impression and for the color choice, it's warmer. They also use the darker one. So it highlights the wood area and the warmer wood accents here. Okay, let's go up. Okay, now we're on the second floor. We're greeted by the family area. This is the family room, the family area. Now we can see here. Actually, there's a marker so we can see which area we're in. We're in this part in the front section. And we can see later up to the third floor. Okay, before we go to the third floor, there's a lot here. There are two kids rooms. Then there's a kids bathroom. There's also a laundry, a laundry area, which we'll also look at later. And there's a master bedroom. Okay, before we see everything, let's go to the kids room first. Let's go. So this is the kids room. So this is everything as well. The interior, even the door itself was finished with HPL from Frantico. From here, we can see it's quite spacious, the room. And also what's interesting here is this is the opening that leads to the front area, the facade area. There's also an opening on the right side here. And then there's The table can actually be used for sitting too. You can also use it to put things on top of it. But it's also used as storage space. There's also lighting inside. Then in the area to my left, there's also a closet area for clothes. Besides that, it fits quite a lot. So you really get a pretty big space. There's also an area here to hang clothes as well. Across from here, the layout is more or less the same just mirrored. Okay, before we go to that area, I want to mention again, these slats are repeated from the bottom to the top and the finishing is the same as well. HPL from Frantico. Heading to the area. Restroom to the kids bathroom. Wow. This is brighter, right? And here are the openings. There are two from the front and from the side here. From the void earlier. So it gets light right away. And in the front part, the one I mentioned earlier, this is the part. The screen from earlier. Closed. Yes, this can be opened too. There's a skylight above and it also helps with airflow. Through here. Okay, screen block. Okay. Next, we will go to the laundry area. Now the laundry area. The laundry is interesting. This is the one that can be accessed from the service area downstairs. I want to mention here because these blinds are used here so that water doesn't splash and doesn't directly hit the clothes when they're being dried. This is the laundry area. Alright, after this, we'll finally go to the master bedroom. Let's go. So guys, from the void area earlier, you could still see it from above but I want to mention one thing. Earlier, the area to my right was the laundry area where we came from and that also uses screen blocks. So there's a reason it's not a window. So it can be closed but the wind can still pass through. And you can also see between the screen blocks, there's a That's to make it neat. In the end, maybe it becomes a drip groove so it looks tidy between the floors. Come on, this is the master bedroom. Okay, this is the master bedroom. It really does look even more spacious. Above the bed, there's a small opening. That's what's interesting about it and also all the finishes here use Frantico HPL as well. And on my left, this is the wick area. Walk-in closet. So all the closets here are for clothes and storage. This is also for getting ready. A dressing table and the toilet. Can you guess where the toilet is? It's over there. Come on, let's take a look at the toilet. Well, this is the bathroom. It really is more spacious. They use a darker color tone and mix it with the HPL so it feels warmer. And then they use And there's also a small opening here so there can be airflow as well. And the area for washing your hands is also spacious. There's also a storage area above. Now to my right, this is the shower area. Wow, it's really spacious. The color tone is also the same as the one on the faucet. They use mosaic tiles. Then in this area, there's also a place to put soap and other bathing tools. Next, we'll go to the third floor since there are more rooms. Let's go. So friends, before we go up, I really want to highlight this. The timing is just perfect. There's a skylight here and this really highlights the texture, the Tadowando from earlier. The same one used from the living room is also used here. Then the skylight is covered with Wood too. Yeah, that's wood. They used wood here as well. Well, this is the rooftop area on the third floor. Now what's interesting here is this. It turns out the owner is PT Peman. So there's a gym area right here. Wow. The gym area is spacious. You get a place to work out and it's just perfect. You get natural light here and you also get a nice view over there. Let's take a look. Right here is an area to sit and relax as well. You can even rest here after working out at the gym. But besides that, there's also this detail using metal grating underneath. So if it rains, it's still safe and not slippery. So if you go to the lower area, you won't slip or anything like that. It's the same pattern used in the skylight earlier. The lattice is also used for the skylight here. Now you can also see the void area from earlier. The garden is really open all the way to the top. It's also on my right side here. So it's really open all the way to the top. Now that area over there is closed off with a grill. That's the utility area. Earlier, the area on the left side was all service, right? We're going to go there. Come on. This is the access. So this is the access to the utility area. All right. It's quite a long way there. So it really separates the service area that isn't meant to be seen. Now this is the access area over here. The water tank is over here. And all of this is also covered with a skylight. Now from here, we can also see the laundry area. And maybe while we're here, it's perfect because the roof is also made of bitumen. That's the toilet area from earlier. The one with the skylight. So with bitumen, the slope doesn't have to be too steep. It doesn't have to be slanted like that. Okay, guys, that's it for the house tour. Now we're going to talk to the architect about the technical details. Let's go. The land area is about 207 square meters. The building area is 408 square meters. For the concept, actually, our approach is divided into two. The first approach is the personal one. So we want to capture the client's personality, their character. So the feeling really comes through all the way to their home. Then the second approach is contextual. Now let's start by discussing the facade first. So the facade looks a bit closed off. It's quite solid with minimal openings. It also looks very monotonous, cold, gray, and black in color. The concept is that we want to capture the character of the client. Both clients are introverted. So the introverted side is reflected. That's why there are minimal openings to the outside. From the contextual side, actually, the facade area faces west. So there are fewer openings. One of the concepts in this project is a grid-based division. We divide it both vertically and horizontally. So vertically, the overall form is more or less like this. Horizontally, it goes towards the back. Now from the vertical direction where we made the zoning on this side, which means the far right side, we made that as the client zone. While on the left side, we made it the service area. We don't combine the service area and the client area. So there's a pretty solid line to separate those two spaces. And for the horizontal zoning, we divide it from the front to the back. So for the front area, we're working with about a third of the space. The front is for the public area, the middle is for semi-private, and the back is for private. So if we look at where we're shooting right now, this is the private area. Dining, living, and kitchen. While the middle part is semi-private, more towards the void area. The back and the front are more of the public areas, like the living room. So for the upper part, we divide it like this. The lower part is the public and semi-private area, and the very top is private. At the very top, as William showed earlier, that's really the workspace area for the client himself. Earlier, when we entered through the main entrance, the main entrance and the service entrance for the housekeeper, that's actually the effect we wanted to create. It looks like not many people know how to get into the house. That's basically the concept. Then there's a need for a housekeeper. The housekeeper's area is also quite interesting because they don't want it to be inhumane in size. So the housekeeper also still has a comfortable space, bright, with enough air circulation. And from accommodating all those space needs, he also needs a gym in this 200 square meter area. Because one of the owner's main jobs is being a fitness coach. Well, out of all their space needs, they also want a house that's not dark, actually. They need enough air circulation and enough natural light. So maybe that's also one of our challenges as designers. How do we accommodate all the space needs into one compact design, but without making it look haphazard? There still needs to be a hierarchy and everything like that. Back in college, I was often taught by one of my professors to differentiate between spaces. If you use an open plan, for example, there aren't too many partitions, but you still want to create differences between one room and another. The professor often mentioned several times to create a threshold. So threshold. One example of a threshold is a difference in floor elevation. That's included too. So when you enter from the foyer area into the living room or kitchen, there's a difference in floor levels in all of those areas. That's right. You go up when you enter, then down to another room, then up again to a different room, more or less like that. But it's just one or two steps and a difference in materials. Maybe this is more about the concept, so it's not too technical. We want to capture the overall concept of this house as a representation of the owner's character. So if we talk about it from the front, maybe it looks closed off, kind of cold, not too loud or expressive. But once we go inside, there are a lot of openings, a lot of voids. This also reflects the client's character. As a concept, maybe from the front, when you first approach, they don't talk too much. They might seem closed off or introverted, but once we get to know the client, going through the process of building this house together takes quite a while, even years. It turns out they're actually very welcoming, very warm, open. So this void also reflects one aspect of the client's character. Once we get to know them, they're actually open. They're willing to trust us. Maybe one of the things that gets expressed is the willingness to have good circulation, air circulation. Honestly, there are still a lot of clients here who aren't aware, even though we live in a tropical environment. So actually, we really need good air circulation, otherwise it gets humid. A lot of people still may not realize how important, let's say, an inner courtyard is, how important a void opening is. For air to escape, because hot air rises up, right? Many people don't know about it yet, so if we suggest it, for example, they don't want to lose the potential of their space for despair and void, which maybe, quote-unquote, they think the maintenance is difficult, like that. But from our side, from our idealism, that actually improves how well the owner's needs are met too. This afternoon, for example, when we were shooting, there were four people, an open window allows more air circulation than when everything is closed. That's how it is. The design duration was around that, maybe up to four or five months. Construction now takes one year and eight months. Yes, as for the budget, it's confidential at the client's request. But if there's a need, for example, for the next project, and you need to know, maybe you can just contact us directly at SANAWA, and the year it was built is 2024. That means it was last year.