Winning the IAI Bali Award: Folk Pool & Garden

Kairana Gassani

We are excited to announce that we have won the IAI Bali Award with our project in Ubud, Folk Pool and Garden!  Utterly grateful for this award as a lot of amazing fellow architects and figures also contributed their works making this award very prestigious and such an honor for us to have won it.

IAI (Indonesia Architect Association) Bali annually organizes an award for architects, architecture projects in Bali and figures that have contributed their knowledge and skills to develop architectures in Bali. This award aim to give appreciation for the architectural innovation that implements the right ethic, logic and good aesthetic.

This year we submitted few of our projects and one of them, Folk Pool & Gardens, got nominated for tourism accommodation category. We were not sure at first about Folk, since one of the criteria was to implement Balinese architecture principles in to the design. It is also required to follow the building regulation in Bali. While Folk was designed to be very rustic and exposed, it is still as Bali as it can get.

Located right at the heart of Ubud, Folk Pool & Garden is a scaled up restaurant turned into swim up bar and backyard. The bar implements the laid back concept, for the owner wished to present the Ubud ambience. To really bring out the nostalgic nuance of Ubud or Bali in general, a selection of recycled materials was applied in most area of pool and garden from its framework building, interior as well outdoor exterior. All the materials were exclusively picked from the local vicinity such as old tin rood sheets and recycled trellis.

Traditional Balinese buildings seek to be in harmony with the nature and the environment. It is presented on how Folk blend in with the surrounding through its humble concept and the nuance of familiarity. The landscape is also covered with plants, flowers and bushes just like the typical neighbor garden.  Other than that, traditional Balinese houses are built almost entirely of organic materials and Folk Pool and Garden applied these natural materials such as thatch roofing, recycled ironwood and different kind of stones.

Through Folk Pool & Garden, we wish for people to see how diverse and dynamic our projects are. They are the realization of our unique ideas with the love of nature’s touch and the clash of culture. We want people to not only enjoy our projects, but also story to tell and memories to remember for a long time. And lastly, this award is dedicated to all the team, the clients and partners that have supported us through this journey. This one’s for you.

Cheers,

SHL Asia Team

SHL Asia Anniversary Celebration: Years of Servings the Hospitality Design

This year we celebrated our 9th year being in the industry. Wow. It is almost a decade we are serving the architecture and landscape hospitality design. It honestly feels like it was just some time ago we wrote our gratitude and celebration of the 8th year anniversary and now here we are, older, more mature and (hopefully) better.

9 years is not a long time for an architecture firm yet it is established enough to already know what direction it is heading to. Of course, it was not an instant result for us but we do learn in the process. A number of trials and errors are necessary but also accomplishments that have made us to keep going.

It seems like we have not gone far, but looking back made us realize of all of our achievements – small or big – that have shape us into the SHL Asia today. Other than that we do owe to a lot of people that have helped us along the journey – clients, respected partners and loyal friends – who have been with us since day one or who we met on the way until now.

27 July marked the exact birthday date of SHL Asia, but due to some reasons (including the Galungan and Kuningan Holiday) we had to push back the party to first week of August, so everyone could come and celebrate it together. We did not think anything fancy, just an intimate celebration with all the team. So instead of going out finding restaurant, we chose Workspace and Culture as our venue.

Since we also just moved to Workspace and Culture, it could also be another thing to celebrate it. We chose to celebrate this special day in this special place. We shared many things from work to life lesson between all team members like a family. On this day, besides celebrating our anniversary, we celebrated so many things and overall we were just being grateful of all this 9 years.

Cheers,
SHL Asia team