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Pantulan
News
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| A
Simple Home in Bali |
A
Place of Reflection |
An
Environment in Harmony |
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| A Place
of Reflection |
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"If
there is a theme to Pantulan, it would
most
certainly be that of nature" |
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When Martin Rubin and
Jacqueline Wales came to Bali four years
ago, building a home on the island was
the furthest thing from their mind.
They chose Bali as a convenient meeting
place to reunite with family and to
celebrate Jacqueline’s 50th birthday.
Before their visit was over a few short
weeks later, however, the couple had
found a parcel of land in Ubud and secured
the services of longtime friends and
architects Tony Gwilliam and Marita
Vidal – building a home suddenly
became a welcomed ancillary benefit
to their visit.
Four years on and the couple are the
guardians of one of the area’s
more splendid homes: a sprawling five-bedroom
complex which sits unobtrusively on
a dividing line separating a time-spared
Balinese village and a long stretch
of rice field. 
Their home, Pantulan,
literally Reflection in Indonesian,
is a model of modern Balinese architecture
that has been constructed to utilize
the traditional wantilan format for
all its nature nurturing characteristics.
Four separate alang-alang topped pavilions
are interconnected by a series of covered
walkways that lead to each distinct
area of the home. The wantilan schematic
encourages the sought after interaction
between the villa and the surrounding
environment, while facilitating a certain
climate control with shading and cross-breezes
as a natural cooling agent for the common
areas.
“The
original concept was for a Balinese
compound style of living,”
says Wales, who used the home as the
perfect sanctuary to write her first
novel Forsaken, “we
really wanted to maintain, as much as
possible, the integrity of the village,
a very traditional village, and it’s
a section of Lodtunduh that has never
been built in to this extent.”
Lodtunduh is the epitome of Balinese
villages. One side is marked by an abundance
of coconut groves and the other painted
in the myriad of colors spawned from
the seasonal changes of a seemingly
never ending plateau of rice farms.
The village is quaint and quite. For
years it has remained mostly unchanged
and has escaped the development seen
in central Ubud a few kilometers to
the North. Pantulan evokes the spirit
and personality of the village, down
to the warm and friendly staff, most
of whom were born and raised just minutes
away from the villa.
Considering the charm and solitude of
the villa’s location, it was only
natural to build a villa that emphasized
the endearing surroundings. The open
wantilan plan was the natural choice.
The objective was to build a vacation
home suitable for the couple and their
four children, where both Reuben and
Wales can pursue their passions for
meditation and writing, respectively.
They also wanted to build a home that
was adequate for entertaining large
numbers of guests, so that meant incorporating
spacious common areas such as the dining
room, living area and sitting room.
If there is a theme to Pantulan, it
would most certainly be that of nature,
particularly water. When entering the
main courtyard of the home, a large
reflection pool that spans nearly half
the width of entire home immediately
comes in view. “Water
brings a sense of peace and tranquility
to the environment,” says
Wales of the abundance of water features
throughout the property, which include
a multitude of lotus ponds, waterfalls,
small creek systems and a 25 meter swimming
pool. “It
is also very restful for meditation
and is cooling because you have lots
of water around,” adds
Reuben. The water features also serve
as an interesting link between the home
and the nearby rice fields. During the
rainy season, when the fields are flooded,
the water features provide a remarkable
sense of continuation – with the
natural reflection of the outside environment
seamlessly blending together with the
reflections offered inside. During the
harvest season, the water features inside
the home gently echo the flourishing
farms beyond. “I
think it was real important to keep
the open environment because truly,
this is the magic of living in Bali,”
says Wales.
The main pavilion of Pantulan was obviously
constructed for social purposes. The
living room, dining room and kitchen
all sit adjacent to one another without
obstruction. Wales, an avid cook, made
a point of keeping the kitchen within
sight of the rest of the pavilion in
order to evoke a more social presence
between the specific areas. The five-meter
single piece of marabou that serves
as the residence’s dining table
is separated from the kitchen only by
a cleverly placed glass cabinet –
allowing for a greater sense of space
and interaction.
Also in the main pavilion are the central
living area and a smaller, quainter,
dining area. The house is decorated
with various knick-knacks and artwork
from around Indonesia and Asia –
all remarkably fitting for a home that
inevitable erases any lines that may
distinguish the outside environment
from the inside and contemporary from
traditional.
A private study is tucked away in a
comfortable second storey nook that
overlooks the main living area and just
around the corner in front of the home’s
spa bale is an entertainment room complete
with satellite TV, PlayStation and library
of DVD movies.
Covered walkways flanked by water features
lead away from the main living pavilion
towards the master bedroom suite and
the other satellite pavilions of the
property. The sitting area downstairs
from the master bedroom is aptly named
the “Lotus
Pavilions” because of its
proximity to the nearby lotus pond that
sparkles in the middle of the home.
An exquisitely carved sandstone wall
depicting life in the local village
serve as the main focal point of the
area, which also looks out over the
swimming pool and nearby rice fields.
The carving, like much of the other
construction of Pantulan, was executed
by members of the local community, a
fact that both Wales and Reuben are
quite proud of. “The
Balinese own this land and we are very
happy to give back to them as much as
we can,” says Wales who
notes that nearly the entire staff of
the villas is from Lodtunduh.
Each individual aspect of Pantulan has
a charm and uniqueness all its own.
Be it the second storey master bedroom
that overlooks the luxuriant rice field
or the “Temple
Garden” pavilion which
sits next to a peacefully cascading
waterfall and features a bathroom dotted
with young bamboo stalks or the “T”
house; every writers dream den –
a two storey ironwood cabin reminiscent
of a tree house, placed perfectly on
the boarder that separates Pantulan
from the textbook greenness of Bali’s
famous rice farms.
The enthusiasm Martin Rubin and Jacqueline
Wales convey about the relationship
between their home in Ubud and its interconnectedness
to both the environment that supports
it and the locals who helped build it
is a wonderful testament to the positive
energy that is Pantulan. “We
are part of the natural environment,”
concludes Wales, “that
is truly the magic of Pantulan.” |
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| G.
Lopes |
| Fine Restaurants
& Villas, March - April 2005 |
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