Project name: Villa Ivy and Elisa, tropical courtyard villas
Interior design: Riccardo Rubelli Architetto
Design Team: Riccardo Rubelli
Location: Seseh beach, Bali, Indonesia
Photo: Pietro Ansaldi
Area: 500 SQM
Year: 2025
Project description from design firms Riccardo Rubelli Architetto
After ten years spent in the chaotic city of Shanghai, an Italian-Chinese couple with a child chose to move to Bali, to the village of Seseh, just 400 meters from a still-peaceful beach. Here, Villa Ivy and Villa Elisa take shape.
The project consists of two villas with rooftop terraces overlooking the surrounding landscape. One is designed for family living, while the other is intended for rental.
PLAN
The design stems from the intention to combine a contemporary language with the island’s tradition, through careful building orientation, proper natural ventilation, and the selection of materials suited to the tropical climate.
From a volumetric perspective, the architecture is composed of a wooden volume enclosed within a white masonry shell, resting on natural stone walls that define the plot and create courtyards with gardens and swimming pools. Lush greenery integrates and decorates the pure volumes, helping to mitigate the heat of the tropical sun.
The teak-clad volume features vertical slats in the more enclosed areas, where service windows open for bathrooms and ancillary spaces, while it opens up with full-height wooden frames onto the bedroom terraces.
Functionally, the villas are organized with a living area on the ground floor, including a lounge and kitchen that open onto the garden with pool and sun deck, and a sleeping area on the first floor with bedrooms and bathrooms also lit by skylights and connected to rooftop terraces screened by white metal pergolas with bamboo coverings, set within a fully landscaped environment.
The large sliding glass doors, almost entirely retractable, create continuity between interior and exterior spaces, enhancing the perception of openness and offering views of the surrounding nature.
The interiors maintain coherence with the external architecture. Pure volumes clad in terrazzo and microcement define staircases, seating, kitchens, and wardrobes, creating an essential environment where quality prevails over quantity. The use of wood, rattan, and bamboo for frames, furnishings, lamps, and decorative details warms the atmosphere, conveying an authentically Balinese feeling.
