The Valley Ridge
Villa Vajra - Guy Morgan Architects
According to architect Guy Morgan, cultural and topo¬graphical diversity were the key challenges in this villa development, one which cascades over the lip of the famed Sayan ridge in Ubud.
Says Morgan, “within some 60 are of land we had a village access and a house to the north; a beautiful elevated spur of untouched rice field… and a terraced coconut grove dropping away to a near vertical river gorge with dramatic views to the south…” The first issue was simple access to the site, which re-quired sensitive negotiations with the local community; experts were also consulted to find out how close the villa could be built to the river valley.
Morgan’s concept was, as he puts it, “to maintain the drama of the site’s topography, and respect the exist¬ing village form, scale and character as much as pos¬sible…” In the early planning stages, Morgan suggested that the rice fields be left entirely free of construction. Consequently, the villa sat “…on the exact boundary of the rice field and the river valley.”
The result is that the approach to Villa Vajra maintains the same sense of context and scale as the neighboring village. From this side, the villa, despite its actual dimensions, appears as diminutive in stature as its neighbors.
“It is only once we enter over the stepping stones into the main courtyard… that the verticality and drama of the river gorge are revealed,” Morgan explains. The villa itself boasts double-height living pavilions, mezzanines, a 3m high stone waterfall, with the living and sleeping areas “…expressed as a series of platforms dropping down the face of the valley.”
Thus Morgan was able to marry the distinct topographi¬cal characteristics of the site. The outcome is a deep sense of the setting, with forms, materials and tech¬niques of construction that consistently remind visitors that, as Morgan concludes, “they could only be in Bali and absolutely nowhere else!”
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