The Jusman House is located amidst rice fields on the outskirts of the city and is primarily built in a traditional Indonesian fashion. It features a series of pavilions which are spatially linked in an imaginative and animated way. The house successfully adapts for contemporary needs the traditional Indonesian architectural vocabulary, safeguarding the integrity of time-honoured construction techniques while integrating modern design sensibilities. Furthermore, it demonstrates how sensitive interventions can be made in otherwise rural landscapes; not only does it employ a traditional low-rise building style but it also suggests an incremental pattern of growth whereby the house might be expanded in response to future requirements.
The design concept involved organizing the site according to the principles of traditional Indonesian architecture, via the creation of a series of interconnected pavilions. In the way they are positioned on the site, these pavilions create a distinct hierarchy of privacy. On entering the plot, the first space that one encounters is a pendopo, an open hall that is enjoyed as a public amenity by villagers, neighbours and household staff. This pendopo hall is followed by a second pendopo, which acts as an entrance hall and reception area for the main house. Here guests who are not well known to the family can be received; this is a free-standing pavilion; it accommodates a guest toilet and a guest room, which is treated as a separate unit.
Moving on further within the plot one arrives at the main house. This structure, with a ground and an upper floor, contains the main living spaces for the family: living room, dining room, kitchen, ground-floor bedroom and, on the upper level, master bedroom with small study. This opens out onto a veranda overlooking a large pond, which occupies the depth of the plot. On one side of the pond sits the gazebo, which is used as an entertainment pavilion, and on the other is the prayer room. Against the compound wall is a water tank and also the service areas, which contain a room for the domestic staff, together with a toilet, a kitchen and a veranda. At one end of the plot, cordoned off by the compound wall, is a 'C'-shaped warehouse arranged around a courtyard.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
