This unbelievable three story structure has been designed by ID-EA, headed up by Elsye Alam, this house is not only a comfortable and elegant family home but a highly functional and inventive one too. The 18,298 square foot residence was constructed for the Los Angeles-based designer’s family in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Alam Residence hosts two generations and three households. The different levels – one for her parents and two separate ones for her two siblings – are designed to balance a certain amount of privacy with a level of interaction.

The frontage of the house is in a way antithetical to the surrounding neighborhood which mostly covering themselves with massive fences and guard booths. Alam Family Residence prefers sharing the front yard through a nearly transparent fence and pushes the privacy screen inward onto the facade which embraces the new found relationships between indoor/outdoor and public/private. The perforated concrete west-facing wall acts as breathing brise-soleil; prevents overheating on building skin while filtering the abstract graphical light qualities and transforming the space throughout the day and night.

An “E” shape plan effectively organizes the internal masses of the house creating two inner voids that brings light and air deep into the house through both plan and section. Extensive vertical glazing around the inner courtyards and generous use of skylights opt out the need for artificial lighting in the spaces including closet spaces during the day and yet creates constantly changing light conditions that activate the interior.

The interior of the house is a series of free-flowing, continuous spaces that fosters a supportive, interactive family lifestyle. The consistent minimal white palate in the common area gives visual dominance to the bold red prayer niche representing family traditions in a modern way—as does the bold yellow aquarium which is located in the heart of the dining-living areas, the dark wood “rolling carpet” of the staircase, the abstracted Borneo jungle water wall with local natural stone, and the vertical garden in the courtyard.

Photos: Fernando Gomulya/Elsye Alam