The K House nestles in the hills to the north of Bandung.

The east-facing façade overlooks the arrival courtyard.

Tan Tjiang Ay was born in Central Java in 1940. He studied at the Institute of Technology Bandung from 1958 to 1960 at a time when the works of the twentieth-century “masters,” Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, were being introduced into a curriculum that was modeled on Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He was one year ahead of Romo Mangun, who would later become an architect/priest of considerable stature. The architecture of Walter Gropius and Alvar Aalto greatly influenced Tan in these formative years. In 1960, Tan transferred from ITB to Parahyangan Catholic University (1960 to 1968) to complete his studies, and was in private practice between 1968 and 1972 before taking up a partnership with Lampiri Indonesia Architects for the next eight years. In 1980, he resumed his own practice, concentrating on the design of private dwellings.

I first met Tan Tjiang Ay in 1993 when researching my book, The Tropical Asian House, and subsequently I published his family residence in Bandung. Now in his seventieth year, he is a doyen of the profession in Indonesia, and his work is much admired by a younger generation. A committed modernist, he continues to refine details and experiment with structure and form. He produces exceptionally well-mannered modern architecture that thrills by its adherence to the Vitruvian principles of commodity, firmness and delight.

The K House, sometimes referred to as “The House in the Highlands,” is located in the hills to the north of Bandung and is the latest in an oeuvre of residential projects that have won Tan wide respect in the architectural profession in Indonesia and further afield in Asia. He has an unerring ability to know when “enough is enough” so that his designs are always clean, precise essays in a modern architectural language, unencumbered by excessive features or unnecessary decoration. A feature of all of Tan’s designs is his masterly expertise in inserting a house into the landscape with minimal damage to the ecosystem. It is a rare skill that I associate with other acclaimed architects in Asia, such as Geoffrey Bawa and Kerry Hill.

The architectural program of the K House is split into four parts. Two pavilions are located on the lower slopes of the valley while a third pavilion is set on the higher contours.

The living room veranda gives magnificent views of the valley to the east.

The imposing entrance to the house.

View to the east from the gym at the upper level of the site.

Bandung’s altitude insures that the living room enjoys wonderful cooling breezes.

Outbuildings are even higher up the hillside, accessed by a steep path. The house is approached from the north along the side of a valley. The grass-crete driveway traverses the slope, dropping gently to the small plateau on which the main living accommodation is located. The larger of the two pavilions on the lower slopes contains the living and dining rooms, with a veranda looking east over the valley and with a rear patio that catches the late afternoon sun. The master bedroom suite on the upper floor also enjoys a view to the east and a view into a double-height void that serves to reduce solar insolation. A sub-basement garage is entered from the lowest level of the site.

The smaller of the two pavilions contains the maidspace and two additional bedrooms. Both pavilions are just one room wide, insuring they can benefit from natural ventilation, while the pitched roof has overhanging eaves to shade the walls and shed monsoon rainfall. The third pavilion, on the upper slopes, is a glass box that contains a gym and relaxation space, with much of the external wall in the form of glazed doors that can be thrown open to give an unrestricted view of the valley to the east and the hills to the northeast.

The simplicity of the K House plans is revealing. The resolution seems to be effortlessly achieved, but this very simplicity is the mark of a genius who is able to distill a complex brief into a remarkably clear plan form. Tan’s mastery of tectonics is exemplary: the two main pavilions are joined in a manner that expresses their different purpose but, simultaneously, that they are part of a whole. The hillside has been relatively undisturbed by the building operations and the result, as with all of Tan’s houses, is a calm ensemble of forms that rests easily in the landscape.

The patio at the rear of the house.

The marvelous interplay of internal volumes is typical of Tan Tjiang Ay’s designs.

Site plan.

Approaching the house from the northeast.

The view from the entrance courtyard toward the house entrance.

A wonderful panoramic view of the wooded valley below the house.

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