Project: JT House
Architects: Tamara Wibowo Architects
Location: South Jakarta, Indonesia
Area: 500 m²
Year: 2021
Photo credits: KIE, Fernando Gomulya
JT House was designed for an American and Indonesian couple that has two daughters who spend part of their years in the United States. The house was designed to accommodate their favorite activities such as cooking in a spacious kitchen and entertaining friends around a large dining table while also enjoying the intimacy and privacy of their house.
The house also serves as a blank canvas to display one of their daughter’s artistic productions and their personal collection of artworks. The JT house was located on a dead-end street in South Jakarta. In contrast with the intricate and busy roads of South Jakarta, the house was meant to be a simple and quiet structure that has its own warm yet strong character through its materials and composition.
There are 2 boundaries of the house: first is the exterior metal gate combined with a rough dark stone wall that separates the street and the house, and second is the wall with a single door that separates the carport and the inner courtyard to ensure the privacy and security of the inner house. As one enters the door, one can directly see the inner courtyard with its 15-meter blue-tiled pool.
The experience of entering the house is shaped by the long entry corridor defined by a wood plank cast concrete wall and the long transparent wall on one side while being visually and physically pulled in by the wood-lined entry foyer that marks the arrival point of the house. The wood-lined entry foyer’s ceiling continues into the interior living spaces to further reinforce the strong integration of outside and inside. The living areas are arranged in an open plan on the first floor.
A spacious kitchen complete with a kitchen island in the middle is located towards the front of the house closer to the service area. The living room is located towards the back of the house and opens up to a small light court. The dining room is located in between the two areas becoming the center of the house.
All the living areas are directly connected to the outdoor areas only separated by continuous operable glass walls making the house very open while also creating constant airflow throughout the house. In contrast to the living areas’ brightness and expansiveness, the second floor’s stairs are designed to be darker and quieter as we go towards the private areas upstairs.
Access to the outdoor garden to bring light and fresh air into the house is also incorporated into the bedroom corridor to create a comfortable experience in even the most mundane space. A continuous balcony below the wood-lined roof is also provided all around the whole second floor to create a protected outdoor space for each room. This balcony merges into a communal rooftop garden in front of the master bedroom, becoming a favorite space for the family to hang out in the evening.
The transparency that happens throughout the house creates an uninterrupted relationship between the outside and inside of the house while constantly providing fresh air and protected light into the house while privacy in the house is maintained through well-orchestrated openings.
The JT house expresses the natural characteristics of its materials; wood plank cast concrete wall and naturally finished teak wood combined with refined black steel elements, creating a modern sensibility, integrity, and honesty to the architecture of the house.
