The environmental impact of plastic is well-known. If not recycled, it pollutes our neighborhoods, oceans, and the world around us. With this work, the trio hopes to illustrate how we use and misuse plastic, where it goes, and where it ultimately ends up (most times, in the ocean).

Color coding the trash into categories further emphasizes how humans misuse plastics. The white portion of the sculpture in particular shows that first-use plastics are discarded a whopping 60 percent of the time, whether in landfills, unmanaged in the overall landscape of our planet, or by making its inevitable journey into our oceans.

But that’s not the only data visible on the sculpture. There are also other colors that represent the complicated journey that plastics often take through our global waste stream. For example, green represents recycled plastics, red represents incinerated plastics, and blue shows plastics still in use. The width of each stream is proportionate to its statistical number, but it’s the black stream that’s truly the most alarming here, as it’s meant to reflect all the plastic ever produced since 1950: a whopping 8.3 billion metric tons, all for human use and consumption.

By using plastic collected by 50 volunteers on the Bali beach with the goal of finding the appropriate colors, the creators hoped to shift perspectives. Rather than collecting garbage, they were meant to be collecting and curating the pieces with the goal of taking “creative action.” As artist Liina Klauss (one of the three masterminds behind the project) says, “Science gives us new knowledge about the world. Art gives us new perspectives how to see the world. [And] merging the two has tremendous power.”

Klauss began the vision for the impactful sculpture about ten years ago, in 2011. When she was living in Hong Kong, she gained a deeper understanding of how plastic pollution impacts our planet, and how statement-making art can build awareness. Making Indonesia her second home only served as a catalyst for ultimately producing this colorfully impactful piece on the beach in Bali.

The latest sculpture is just one of the many pieces Klauss has created in the intervening decade, effectively turning “rubbish into rainbows.” On her coastal walks, she has found everything from medical waste to refrigerators washed up on the beach, using all of it in her more than 50 art installations across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan. All are colorful and use the beach as a canvas — the perfect way to illustrate how plastic devastates our coasts, our oceans, and our planet.

Klauss says, “All over the world on remote beaches, plastic pollution has become insane normality or normal insanity.” By creating her sculptures, she hopes to raise awareness and change people’s perceptions — and maybe even their habits. Look for Klauss’ “Perpetual Plastic” on the big screen when it debuts later this year as a short film by director Eric Ebner.

The post Bali’s “Perpetual Plastic” Sculpture is (Literally) Trash first appeared on Dornob.

In Bali, Jakarta-born artist Agnes Hansella has crafted what might be three of the largest macrame works of art ever made. Her trio of woven rope installations, hanging from the ceiling of an open-air structure in the coastal town of Jimbaran, each span more than 37 feet wide and dangle almost two stories from the apex of the roof. Hansella took inspiration from the local environment for these coverings, designing each one to represent the wildlife and geographical features found nearby, like coral, birds, and ocean waves.

Respectively named “Mountain,” “Ocean,” and “Sunset,” these monumental macrame installations were woven alongside a team of artists at Locca Beach House Bali. Using 16-millimeter manila rope, which was cut with a hacksaw, the team spent 12 days on handmade bamboo scaffolding, working with Hansella’s vision but adding their own creative contributions along the way. Indeed, the longer you look at each piece, the more fun little details you can find, like the outlines of mountains and wings.

“This enormous piece is fun and challenging for me to work with,” Hansella says. “With macrame, sometimes we can’t plan the whole thing in one go. The ropes have their own nature and we are the one to follow. The design kept evolving every time a knot was made. Thankfully, I made it in time to finish all three just before the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia. It was an up and down ride because my son was sick during the beginning of project. We were also worried about the spread, but every day we just kept on knotting and doing the best we could.”

“I was never good with drawing pictures, so the finished design is mostly something I came up with on location. I change them a lot based on my instinct and situation. With macrame techniques, the ropes have their own will and character so as the artist I follow them and see what can and can not work,” Hansella recently told Colossal.

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Hansella is a self-taught artist who only just learned how to weave macrame in 2017. Since then, she’s developed a unique style ranging from neutral but complex to strikingly colorful. Some of her previous pieces have included floor-to-ceiling curtains installed in commercial spaces, adorable macrame houses for kids, wall hangings with integrated plant holders, romantic wedding ceremony backdrops, and more.

Each one is impressively intricate, and it’s cool to see how working with smaller rope for these more conventionally-scaled pieces translated into working with much thicker rope for the multi-story installations. To see more, give Hansella a follow on Instagram @macrame_id.

The post Three Massive Macrame Wall Hangings Transform a Seaside Building in Bali first appeared on Dornob.

If you’ve been following our posts about designing small spaces over the years, you probably already know the answer to this problem. A combination of built-in cabinetry and hideaway furniture that’s easy to access and put away can make even the most challenging tiny spaces livable, and that’s exactly what K-Thengono Design Studio did for their “3-in-1 Living” apartment design.

The designers gave the couple the master bedroom of their dreams, clean and simple with plenty of storage, closets, display spaces and room to walk around the queen bed. The bathroom is a standard size, as well, so they didn’t have to sacrifice any functionality there. They also managed to fit a small bedroom for guests or future children. But as you can see in the original floor plan, that didn’t leave much room for anything else.

K-Thengono’s alteration incorporated additional built-in storage into every room and created a streamlined cabinet system that takes up an entire wall of the remaining space. Hidden behind the minimalist white cabinet doors is everything you’d find in a bigger apartment, including a fold-down dining table and two fold-down benches, a couch hidden in its own little nook, and tons of room for all the couple’s stuff. Some of those cabinets even become displays when various components are in use, like the dining set. Others remain closed to hide things the couple doesn’t necessarily want to show off.

“When all the panels are closed, the clutter is hidden inside, the living space allows some extra activities like yoga and home workout to take place,” the designers say. “Both the master bedroom and bathroom are connected with a translucent pivot metal door to maximize the daylight penetration. Sliding panels are used to hide unorganized closet space in the rooms or allow the veneered wooden rack for displays. Functionality is key to the various design strategies, making every piece of furniture as efficient as possible for multiple uses.”

The wall opposite the cabinet is almost entirely mirrored, including the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, to create the illusion of additional space. With a sliding glass door and balcony on the end and all that white, there’s plenty of daylight to go around, and the view becomes the focal point. It seems like the couple isn’t much into cooking, either, since the kitchen remained the same size before and after, located just inside the front door.

Another thing to note: there’s no loft involved in this small-space renovation. Lofts are often a great way to make use of vertical height, which often just ends up being wasted space. Sometimes, when ceiling height allows, they’re placed on top of new built-in cabinetry units like this one to free up even more floor room. It’s a smart tactic, but not everyone wants or is able to climb up into a loft to go to bed. But this design demonstrates that you really can make a tiny apartment work even if you treasure your bedroom as a spacious, private sanctuary.

The post Hidden Fold-Down Furniture Makes This Ultra-Narrow Jakarta Apartment Livable first appeared on Dornob.

Architects Studio WNA designed “Hideout Horizon” with adventurous visitors in mind. Made almost entirely of natural materials, this open-air structure provides a luxurious “glamping” home base divided into different zones for sleeping, lounging, swinging, swimming, and other activities emphasizing relaxation and playfulness.

The wing-shaped roof and large overhang offer a shaded indoor/outdoor space protected from tropical rainstorms, with one side completely open to a private grassy space encircled with palm trees and other plants. The pool serves as a transitional point between indoors and out, while a robust multi-person hammock built as a mezzanine hovers above it.

Inside, a rich palette of natural tones gives the bamboo flooring, structural elements, and roofing both texture and pattern. The rusticity of the materials contrasts beautifully with modern LED lighting. A walkway, doubling as a roof for the couch below, leads from the ground floor up to the nest-like bed surrounded with a canopy of mosquito netting.

“The upper levels cascade into unique sleeping and relaxation spaces for guests,” the architects say. “A large round bed perches on a platform like a nest in the middle of the space, with a secret loft area tucked away at the highest level of the bamboo house. The building is completely open to the serene jungle surroundings. The heated pool is sheltered under the large roof, which provides a safe and comfortable place to relax even when the tropical weather gets wild.”

“The space was purposefully designed to create a fun experience for travelers of all ages. Instead of stairs, a ramp winds through the structure; where some prefer to walk, others prefer to slide. A hanging net above the pool and a bamboo swing downstairs add to the playfulness of Hideout Horizon’s creative yet comfortable character. Guests have an array of spots to relax in after hiking through the surrounding landscape. The bespoke interior design and the bamboo furniture were designed specifically for Hideout Horizon space by the Hideout team in collaboration with Putri Wiwoho.”

With all of Bali’s charms beckoning, including stellar water-based activities and a smorgasbord of delicious cuisine, most guests will just have to find a good balance between their “hideout” and the outside world. But anyone could be forgiven for arriving and deciding not to leave for the duration of their stay.

“Hideout Horizon” is just one of the resort’s all-bamboo homes. “Hideout Falcon” is a larger, fully enclosed guest space, if that’s your preference, while “Hideout Beehive” is a two-level hexagonal structure with some of the resort’s highest vantage points. “Hideout Lightroom” keeps it small and simple (but still luxurious) and has its own spacious soaking tub. You can check out more photos and get info about the Hideout Network on Instagram.

The post All-Bamboo “Hideout Horizon” Offers Tropical Luxury in Bali first appeared on Dornob.

The architects took a bunch of plastic crates commonly found all over Indonesia and reimagined them as building blocks, which seems pretty intuitive since they’re so stackable. Formed into walls, towers, partitions, and roofs after being screwed together and supported with steel columns and frames, these crates became structural elements with several possible functions. That is, they aren’t limited to just being walls — they can also be planters, shelves, or storage space.

The first Kotakrat prototype was built to serve as a small mosque in the busy urban center of Tangerang, Indonesia. You can see how the crates are arranged to create small, semi-private rooms with access to ample fresh air and daylight. Rugs are also tucked into the crates so worshippers can sit or kneel comfortably. Smaller stacks can even be used as stools.

Parisauli Arsitek Studio says their design was partially inspired by the perception that plastic crates aren’t environmentally friendly simply because they’re made of fossil fuels, manufactured in excess, and tossed aside when they aren’t wanted. But look how easy it is to transform them into something truly useful. The architects point out that the plastic is durable enough to stand up to the elements.

Something else to consider is the fact that the modularity of this project makes it easy to disassemble, which is another important factor in sustainable architecture and design. If this prayer space is no longer needed, it would be simple to take it apart, transport it somewhere else, and build it into a new shape for an entirely new purpose.

The firm adds that: “Kotakrat is a ‘ruang kebaikan’ (space of kindness) that starts with the diversity of people’s needs, behavior, and habits. The existence of this space of kindness adapts to the context, location, and needs of its user community. [The] space of kindness may appear as a stall, prayer room, emergency post, shelter, bus stop, and others. This space was created to represent those ideas. Created by crates that are easily found in everyday life but not everyday needs. This crate is easily arranged into space.”

“This idea of Kotakrat representing the space of kindness was started in Indonesia, which has a high diversity. [Starting] by choosing the right user was one fundamental step to make a space of kindness sustain[able] and formed in the middle of society. The first form of the Kotakrat is a small mosque according to the needs on-site. The first goal is to make this system [sustainable] in some society by taking advantage of their needs. Because of its function as a prayer room, we made an additional roof by adding some columns and frames.”

“A small mosque that appears in public space could [meet] a lot of Muslims’ needs, such as praying five times a day on wherever they are…This was one effort to make the space of kindness [sustainable] in society. Hopefully, by the time, this Kotakrat system could be accepted [and become a part of] society itself.”

The post Parisauli Arsitek’s Kotakrat Pavilion is Made Entirely From Crates first appeared on Dornob.

With a population of about 10 million residents that is rising every day due to an exploding economy, Jakarta is growing increasingly overcrowded. By the year 2020, the population of the Greater Jakarta area could reach 35 million. As it sinks, the largest city in Southeast Asia will have to find somewhere to put all of those people, especially as resources and housing grow more scarce.

In response, Indonesia’s government has come up with a dramatic plan to move the capital to a brand new city on the island of Borneo at a cost of roughly $33 billion USD.

As you might imagine, that is a tall order. The government has been throwing this idea around for decades but put the idea aside when it imagined that building sea walls might solve the problem. But ultimately, as the climate crisis progresses, millions of people will have to move. Officials plan to transfer administrative functions to Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo.

Moving a capital city to a new location has been accomplished many times before in other countries, so the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Pending approval by parliament, construction would begin next year, with 1.5 million civil servants beginning to make the move by 2024. Millions of residents are expected to stay put, especially those without the financial resources to move.

In an editorial for The Independent, journalist Hans Nicholas Jong worries that the move will have ecological consequences. Though the government has promised that the city will be built in a way that won’t harm the environment, experts say there are still a lot of questions that must be answered before it can be considered a “green” undertaking.

“For instance, could deforestation be truly avoided when building the new capital city?” Jong asked. “A recent study evaluating ongoing and planned large-scale road-building projects in the Indonesian part of Borneo island shows that they will lead to further fragmentation of forests resulting in a drastic reduction of forest habitat accessible to wildlife, including critically endangered species such as Bornean orangutans.”

What will this brand new city look like? That is anyone’s guess, and it will be interesting to see whether the government holds an international architecture competition to design it.

“The location is very strategic — it’s in the center of Indonesia and close to urban areas,” said Indonesian President Joko Widodo in a televised announcement. “The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the center of governance, business, finance, trade, and services.”

The land mass of Kalimantan is almost four times bigger than that of the Jakarta area, but it currently accounts for less than a tenth of gross domestic production, according to The Guardian. Its population density is 38 times lower than that of Java, making it a seemingly ideal choice.

Images via Flickr CC by 2.0: The Diary of a Hotel Addict, Raysha Syaiful

The post Indonesia Will Move Its Entire Capital City to Escape Climate Change first appeared on Dornob.

All of these features and more are built into the dreamy Hanging Villa, a private residence by TWS & Partners in Bandung, Indonesia. Commissioned by a client who wanted to entertain large groups of family members without giving up his own personal spaces, the house features several stacked offset volumes facing in different directions to optimize views — not to mention multiple terraces, rooftop gardens, and a palette of natural materials that create visual harmony with the home’s surroundings.

“The site takes benefit from the beautiful surroundings of deep valley and has an advantage of its proximity to the forest conservatory, which provides [the] tranquil atmosphere of the mountainside,” say the architects. “The building’s mass is originally taken from the idea of stacking boxes, which are rotated through their corner axis in order to create different walking experiences from different angles of view. This strategy also allows the users to have different orientations in different rooms and have almost 270-degree views of the surrounding valleys.”

“The building is oriented to take the full advantage of the sun’s position and perpendicular to the wind direction to maximize the wind [entering] the building, while the extensive use of glass openings allows natural cross-ventilation and maximizes [the amount of] natural light entering the building during the day. The building has been weatherized for maximum protection against the loss of warm and cool air by applying appropriate insulating materials and window glazing to reduce heat loss in ways that do not cause indoor humidity.”

A vertical circulation tower leads from the garage at street level up to the second floor, dropping visitors onto a sunny boardwalk that stretches across a reflecting pool. They then enter the villa’s main communal area, which contains the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Full-height glass walls give these more public areas of the home some of the best views, while the interiors are designed to offer a “tranquil and relaxing atmosphere.”

The reflecting pool and other water-based elements aren’t just decorative, of course. They add to the building’s natural ventilation scheme, naturally cooling breezes as air flows in to reduce the need for air conditioning. Slanted wooden louvers on the facade let even more air in while offering some protection from the sun.

Hanging Villa is a beautiful example of design that takes inspiration from local traditional architecture and works with the regional climate to produce a result that feels comfortable, familiar, and refreshingly contemporary all at once.

The post Hanging Villa is a Dreamy Green Getaway in Indonesia first appeared on Dornob.

For those of us living in the West, Asian interiors are an exotic, sophisticated departure from the designs and home objects we see and live with every day. French company La Maison & Co‘s Indonesian and Chinese collections give rooms an exotic Asian feel no matter where in the world they happen to be.

The Impressions of Indonesia collection features rich teak wood, elegant shapes and vibrant colors. These bedroom designs from the collection include details such as large sculptures and idols, low beds, and luxurious accessories.

All together, the richly decorated interiors create relaxing sleep spaces that are a welcome departure from the typical Western bedroom.

The company’s Spirit of China collection is similarly striking. Ornate pieces are complemented by simple lines and low furniture heights.

The occasional use of traditional bamboo adds an authentic feel to the Asian interiors. The Chinese-inspired art and alluring red highlights create beautifully exotic spaces that are at once modern and classic.

About La Maison Coloniale

“LA MAISON COLONIALE specializes in the production and distribution  of furniture whose lines and shapes recall those of furniture  from Indonesia and French Indochina of the 19th and early 20th centuries.”

“LA MAISON COLONIALE is at the origin of the success of ethnic -inspired furniture  in France. In 20 years, LA MAISON COLONIALE has  acquired notoriety and legitimacy in this segment of  ethnic chic furniture publishing. In 2008, LA MAISON COLONIALE joins environmental awareness, and is committed to natural materials: the teak  comes from eco-managed plantations according to social  and environmental standards.”

“Since then, LA MAISON COLONIALE has succeeded in constantly renewing the exoticism  and the invitation to travel, creating massive, authentic furniture  with pure lines. The collections are surrounded by welcoming sofas,  whose textiles (velvet, linen or cotton) are adorned with  warm and colorful tones, and transport you to India, Vietnam or  Africa…”

The post Get Inspired! 9 Beautiful Asian Interiors by La Maison Coloniale first appeared on Dornob.