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The New Means of Hospitality: Redefining Luxury

by with One Comment GeneralProject Updates

Welcome to Cloud Nine

The amazing fertility of the Balinese soil has accorded the Balinese a lot of leisure time, aside from their work as peasants, and stimulated their imagination and creativity. They would channel their creativity in such artistic ways even down on to their daily activities, such as the art of making offerings and the custom of rituals and ceremonies. Blessed with breathtaking nature and rich culture makes Bali is a hotspot for a restful and relaxing retreat. No wonder numerous lavish resorts and polished villas spring in every corner of the island, making it the island of hospitality, as well as a luxurious vacation destination. Breaking the stereotype of “luxury villa”, Cloud Nine Esatate is one of our landscape projects in Ubud has proven to portray a new approach to luxury hospitality.

Tucked in a cliff top of Ubud, Cloud Nine Estate may not look as it seems from the outside. It is veiled from the bustling crowd of people, away from the hustle of downtown Ubud, a hidden gem amidst the lush greens of Ubud. From the main road, the guests follow a mossy stairway down to the estate; and are served a million dollar view of the massive Wos River and valley.  The estate consists of 3 different houses at the moment (who knows if they would expand anytime soon!), named Star Cloud Villa, Lotus Cloud Villa and Angel Cloud is a two storey villa comprising three suites – Anjali, Tara and Dewi suite. We made each villa to have a different focal point and unique features, like the amazing cliff edge panoramic view, the beautiful tropical garden or a direct access to the infinity shared pool.

We designed the landscape to be as eye-catching to complement the whole concept really well. The first impression guests receive on arrival is an all-white themed angkul-angkul (Balinese gate) and boundary wall that somewhat reminds them of arriving at a dreamy peaceful sanctuary. We felt the color white really brings out ‘the Cloud Nine’ vibe down to the every boundary wall and pathway, as it also stands out among the greens surrounding the estate. A “heavenly” feeling… That was exactly what the client wished to deliver to the guests, for them to experience ultimate calmness and tranquility as they enter the Cloud Nine, therefore we assisted them to achieve this.

Luxury at its finest

Cloud Nine mission is to redefine luxury. What exactly is the meaning of “redefining luxury?” A fancy chandelier, some high-tech facilities or marbled floor and tables will come up in a lot of people’s mind when they think of luxury resort, but it is different when it comes to the Cloud Nine Estate. Cloud Nine Estate aims to re conceptualize luxury as so much more than fancy things, luxury that is found in the smallest and simplest details.Things like hand-picked vegetable from the garden, the personal care and connection from people of the village and the vibrant sound of nature waking you up in the morning. In short, it is something that is felt by the heart. We loved the idea and delighted to help them making it come true through our landscape design.

The timeless echo architecture

The architecture of their buildings was inspired from the owner previous home in Singapore with big walls and monochromatic color of white and grey. It was a colonial tropical villa that has lasted since World War I. It lasted without the need for much maintenance or changing of materials. The building was showcasing many eco-architectural features such as cross-ventilation and strategic shading. The houses applied simple yet strong materials with a lot of white polished cement.

The landscape of course, synergized the concept of the building. We inspired to bring in the simplicity of localness from one of the traditional villages. It is designed with massive walls and few plantations. We kept it to be very simple yet eye-catching, with only a touch of green plants and trees amidst the white washed ocean of walls and floors. On the landscape, we applied white terrazzo as the pathway and a little touch of woods on the decks. Even with the artworks and design features, the clients involved so much in the process, carefully hand-picking them to create a harmonious atmosphere and we helped them creating the design that contains of local story. We also made sure to not ruin the aesthetic by adding to much color to the whole picture.

Embraced by the sturdy old colonial houses, the client wished for the villa to be long lasting with a minimum amount of maintenance and remodeling. The overall design is very timeless and eco-friendly. We have worked together to apply the concept very neatly in every aspect of the estate and consistently practice in to every slight detail, proven why they are the global winner for the luxury eco villa. Cloud Nine Estate manage to accentuate the luxury in the simplest thing in life and deliver them splendidly to the guest, since truly the best things in life are often felt by heart. We are so thrilled to be involved in such an inspiring project.

Cheers,

SHL Asia Team

IMAGE COURTESY: @CLOUDNINEESTATE
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Landscaping A Tropical Garden: An Oasis In the Midst of Limestone Field

by with No Comment GeneralProject Updates

Aesthetically pleasing tropical garden

One should appear lush and vibrant; this can be accomplished through dense planting of proper trees, greens and flowering plants. A tropical garden must features tropical plants and requires a good deal of sunlight and a warm, moist climate. These gardens need a good amount of water from either rainfall or decent irrigation system or sprinkler system in order to thrive well. In planting out the garden, there are some things to consider about. The major variables include the location of the site, and the placement and density of the plants and the selection of softscape and hardscape. It all of course, comes back to the personal preference, but in creating a good aesthetically pleasing garden will have to contemplate on these variables. In this month’s article we will bring you a case study from one of our landscape projects: Kapungkur Villa.

An arid hills

The villa is located in Karangsari, a village in Jimbaran. Geographically the area is in South Kuta, Badung district. The area is more known as Bukit (hills) where most of the area is situated on a karst plateau. Unlike the area in the north part of Badung where the land consists of volcanic materials, Bukit area is mostly contain of limestone. Contrasting from the other parts of Badung which the soil holds a lot of minerals making it very fertile, the soil in Bukit area is rather dry and not suitable for agriculture. The area also only has periodic rivers where the water only flows when it is raining and the groundwater filling process only happens during the rainy season. Although sited in a dry location, it did not stop the owner to seek after creating a green oasis.

Throwback from the past

The landscape concept idea of the villa was royal village. The owner wanted to give out the nuance of the past hence, the name itself, “Kapungkur” comes from a Sundanese word which means dahulu (the past). It would show the characteristic of royal village with contemporary looks, privacy and involves historical value in the components of the landscape. It also has a mixed of Javanese and Balinese traditional contemporary style. The villas are using frameworks of a traditional Javanese house, or Joglo, with the Balinese accents here and there.

The first step is..

Before selecting the variety of plants, we first must have to identify the “issue” on the site. The biggest issue with this site was the existence of an apartment building behind it. The apartment is at least a few stories building. This gave it a viewing access over the site, affecting the privacy of the villa. Therefore, in order to sort it out, we chose to plant tall trees like coconut tree (cocos nucifera) and wide, dense trees such African tulip tree (spatodhea campanulata) along the border wall in the back area. Further, to really block the view from the top, we built a a six meters vertical garden with double butterfly pea (clitoria ternatea var. pleniflora) that would also give appealing visual with its violet flowers.

In addition, the owner wished to bring the lushness to this dry area. As a result, we had to select plants and trees that would grow well with such condition and still appear vibrant and dense in order to deliver that kind of ambience to the landscape. Therefore, we chose a variety of different high and low shrubs from crystal anthurium (anthurium crystallinum), giant taro (alocasia macrorrhizos), cuban cigar (calathea lutea), plum aralia (polyscias scutellaria) to fern-leaf aralia (polyscias cumingiana). Most of this vegetation will thrive well with moderate water and full sun exposure. It made them suitable with the soil condition in Bukitarea, but of course still follows with intense maintenance. Some of these shrubs could be found around the yard in old village houses. This would bring the traditional value and nostalgic nuance to the residence. We also planted flamboyant (delonix regia) and bael (aegle marmelos) on a few spots to add some accents

The magic touch of hardscape

Aside from softscape, the presence of hardscape in a tropical garden is as crucial. It functions as the “backbone” of the garden by giving it structure and unifies it with the surrounding environment, completing the whole vista. We installed a few ponds, a pool and some traditional-contemporary artworks around the site.

The gardens of Kapungkur Villa built in two levels following the contour of the site. We built the main ponds on higher parts of a property so that they can gravity-feed water down the garden and ponds below, creating a little creek. Combining the water element to the landscape would appeal to all the senses, enhancing peacefulness and freshness.

For the artworks, we set up statues and a Balinese relief on the wall to follow the whole concept of Kapungkur. To achieved our costumed artworks we also worked together with the local artists and craftsmen to really bring out the sense of localness.

There are many things to consider in planning out and creating a beautiful functioning tropical garden. Things like location and the condition of soil will determine what kind of plants will be planted on the site. The desired concept will as well decide the placement and density of each softscape and hardscape. As in building the tropical garden of Kapungkur Villa, its location was the main thing to really consider about. Therefore we selected the plants that would only need fewer requirements but still grow beautifully. We placed them with a combination of different heights to make it appear dense and lush. And then wrapped all up with the touch of appropriate hardscapes to the landscape. The outcome came out harmoniously as projected in the video down below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=478n2cDmdHI

Cheers,

SHL Asia team