Seen | Unseen

ALEJANDRA CISNEROS

Seen UNSeen EMBRACING NATURAL HOME DESIGN IN BALI

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Contents 8

Jenny Bigio interviews Alejandra Cisneros

16

Limasan Bennu

38

Joglo Blu

52

Passiflora

68

Joglo Jazmin

82

Joglo Ti

96

Joglo Shivapriya

112

Marguerite Remodel

124

Limasan Eli

140 Flora Studios

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152

Madu Kecil Remodel

164

Joglo Nina

182

Biography

183

Credits

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“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”—Rumi

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The work of Alejandra Cisneros marks a significant departure from the “Bali-style” villa design popularized in the past two decades and is a refreshing antidote to the anodyne villas invading Bali’s centuries-old rice terraces. This book delves into the life, philosophies, and design process of this truly original architectural designer in her adopted tropical island home.

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Jenny Bigio interviews Alejandra Cisneros Alej, could you tell us a little about where you are from and how you grew up?

Can you tell us about your childhood home?

I’ve had an unconventional childhood to say the least. With an Argentine mother and Cuban father my upbringing was international from the very start. Before I was even born in New York, I had already visited four countries. My mother chose to divide our time between the United States and Argentina, and our family life was infused with art, music, and languages. She made sure my younger brother and I were fluent in both English and Spanish, and my godmothers, always nearby, encouraged artistic expression.

As a family, we lovingly considered ourselves gypsies, not really attached to one particular place—an apt description given my mother’s Austro-Hungarian ancestry. But, we loved our little San Diego house!

It was designed by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright and was all glass, which brought the outdoors inside. Everything was stripped down to the bare necessities, a distilled version of what we needed. Although it was San Diego, it still got cold in winter and a little too warm in the summer, demanding a starkly different way of living compared to the way most comfort-driven Americans lived. It perfectly mirrored the simplicity my mother sought.

Was there one episode in your early life that changed the way you viewed the world?

My early childhood was quite privileged. First we lived in a luxury apartment overlooking the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson. Then we moved west to a clifftop California dream house with a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean. My father was a well-known industrialist in Venezuela. We were his second family—his secret, unseen one. My father would visit regularly and I remember him whisking my mom away on trips to the Far East and Europe. When I was six, that all changed.

My mother could no longer bear the secrecy of their relationship and ended it. He, in turn, decided quite suddenly to no longer support us.

From one day to the next our lives became very different. Thinking back now, this new life resonated much more with who my mother truly was.

The elegant clifftop house and the Tiffany jewelry held little meaning for her. She valued her freedom above all else.

Within a couple of months, we moved to a small two-bedroom Californian bungalow (now known as Mid-century Modern). She started spending mornings in quiet reflection and taught us to find happiness in simplicity and nature. Ours was a New Age upbringing, long before it became a popular lifestyle choice.

Many of the questions I ask myself every day while designing come from those early lessons. What is essential in a house? What is comfort?

What can we edit out of our houses and what should we make sure we incorporate?

I want to stand the common view of luxury on its head. If I live in relatively crime-free Bali where the weather is temperate why not eliminate most walls to be in closer contact with nature? I get to wake up and see the craftsmanship of the handmade alang-alang (grass-thatched roof) over my head and hear the sound of a frog that has wandered into our living room—that is my kind of luxe.

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In my opinion, that house was an example of extremely effective design. Living in such an open space called for an uncluttered life.

Large single-paned glass windows, without curtains throughout, acutely affected the ambient temperature, encouraging us to live an outdoor life. The backyard was small and monastic. It had raked gravel in place of lawn, a low wooden table and chairs, a mulberry tree that changed with the seasons, and it looked over an undeveloped property that served as an unofficial Torrey pine reserve. That beautiful and rare landscape (endangered Torrey pines grow only in two places in the world) inspired us every single day. In architecture school, I learned that the Japanese call this shakkei, literally “borrowed scenery.” This is the profound yet simple notion that an inspiring landscape, if in view, can become part of our design without ever having to own it.

My childhood home—a house that barely sheltered us from the environment—definitely shaped who I am, and still influences how I approach home design today. It brought to life my mother’s principle of living gracefully in simplicity. She was quite strict about not adding appliances she found absurd, like a clothes dryer, while living in arid San Diego. We hung our clothes on a line outside to dry. Above all, it taught me that a well-designed house must be built with the utmost respect to its environment.

How did you get started in architecture?

Artists and architects were always a part of my life. My godmothers, both copper enamel artisans, introduced me to the idea of making beautiful things at an early age and always encouraged me to draw. Then, as I got into my teens, my Argentine aunt and uncle—both strict modernist architects—moved to the United States and became a part of our family life. Almost every weekend they took my brother and me along to tour iconic architectural landmarks they had previously only known in books.

In Arizona we visited Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri’s revolutionary desert vision and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen West. In Northern California we saw, Charles Moore’s, windswept, wood-framed Sea Ranch. In

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Seen | Unseen Limasan Bennu

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27

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Seen | Unseen Limasan Bennu

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29

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Seen | Unseen Limasan Bennu

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31

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Seen | Unseen Limasan Bennu

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35

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Seen | Unseen Marguerite Remodel

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115

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Published in Australia in 2018 by The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd ABN 89 059 734 431 The Images Publishing Group Reference Number: 1441 Offices Australia 6 Bastow Place Mulgrave, Victoria 3170, Australia Tel: +61 3 9561 5544 books@imagespublishing.com www.imagespublishing.com

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Copyright © The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd 2018 The Images Publishing Group Reference Number: 1335

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Title: ISBN:

Seen | Unseen: Embracing Natural Home Design in Bali // Alejandra Cisneros 9781864707243

Production manager | Group art director: Nicole Boehringer Senior editor: Gina Tsarouhas Assisting editor: Hannah Jenkins Layout designer: Nicole Boehringer

Printed on 157gsm Sun FSC Matt paper by Everbest Printing Investment Limited, in Hong Kong/China

Every effort has been made to trace the original source of copyright material contained in this book.

The publishers would be pleased to hear from copyright holders to rectify any errors or omissions.

The information and illustrations in this publication have been prepared and supplied by Alejandra Cisneros.

While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, the publishers do not, under any circumstances, accept responsibility for errors, omissions and representations express or implied.

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Please visit www.imagespublishing.com

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