Magazine

As The Shadows Fall
Indonesia Design
Vol. 10 / No. 59 / NOV-DEC 2013

"When rays of the sun shined through between rustling leaves in the garden, Yu Sing, an architect with a penchant for using local materials, got a beautiful inspirational vision for a cozy living space. In the heart of Semarang, a city replete with historical, colonial-era buildings, he placed a singular, small structure which was later turned into a bed and breakfast guesthouse."

His burning passion was injected into the project, which is inspired by shadows and shade of a tree growing within the location, an empty site whose original building was demolished, leaving only an old well intact. Shadows of the leaves are translated into the inner chambers while the rays of the sun entering through the leaves are implemented as a garden between the rooms. The marriage of these two symbolisms presents dynamic imaginary lines while the garden provides natural illumination and aeration.

In its contruction, the house with one floor at the front and two floors at the back makes use of used dolken wood shaped like branches of a tree as the structure and facade element of the building. Some of the other materials are recycled ones, such as the tiles and terazzo, glass, wire, iron as well as timber. The house also uses simple materials that pay tribute to its surrounding environment like bamboo sheets and multiplex. These two materials are used as elements to fill up the wall and were used in the previous construction scaffoldings and a shed for materials.

In the beginning, the building was intended as a place of living. But following Yu Sing's advice, the owner then turned it into a small hotel called Rumah Ranting (House of Branches) by adding several pieces of furniture in the two bedrooms as well as in the kitchen. A gentle breeze passes through bamboo sheets and a pieces of wood, bringing along a romantic ambience to those inside. Indeed, it has turned into a welcoming oasis in the city known for its scorchoing heat, which some descrice as even hotter than Jakarta.