Daily activities take place in the open-sided living room overlooking the pool.

The entrance lobby and veranda.

There are magnificent views from the pool terrace toward lush green rice terraces.

Walter Wagner is a native of Landsberg am Lech in southwest Bavaria, Germany. Born in 1959, he graduated from the Fachhochscule in Munich in 1987. In 1991, he became a Member of the Bavarian Institute of Architects and set up practice with Robert Gießl under the name ARcTEC. Between 1991 and 1997, he designed a number of projects in Indonesia and Australia, and in 2000 formed a new practice, Habitat 5, based in Kuta on the island of Bali.

Villa Dewi Sri is a vacation home located northwest of Denpasar, the capital of the province of Bali and the principal point of entry to the island by air. The dwelling occupies a 20 m wide x 75 m long plot that once formed an agricultural holding. The house is entered from a vehicle court and carport shared with an adjoining villa, through a ceremonial gateway set into a high wall. The route then follows a curved path across stepping stones through an attractive water garden to a linear gallery on the central axis of the site. The gallery is flanked by two suites, each containing a double bedroom, a palatial bathroom and the ubiquitous outdoor bathing facilities that insure the complete Bali experience. The two suites are accessed from a shaded veranda that is placed transversely across the central axis, with a staircase that gives access to a third suite of rooms at first-floor level, with two double bedrooms, en suite bathrooms and a wide balcony with access to a roof garden.

The central axis continues down a shallow flight of stairs to a timber pool deck and a 25-meter lap pool. Arranged along one side of the garden are an open-sided kitchen, a breakfast room, dining room and living room, culminating in a veranda with views east over paddy fields. The rooms can be closed by means of sliding glazed doors.

The processional route from the carport to the entrance lobby via a water garden.

The defining feature of the house, that sets it apart from many others, is the extensive roof garden above the living and dining areas. The roof insulates the rooms below and insures that the greenery removed by the very act of building is partially replaced, thus encouraging biodiversity.

A detail of the roof planting box.

The living room with its sustainable insulated “green roof.”

Ground floor plan.

The linear entrance lobby with the pool deck beyond.