Villa Boe Calm Geometry Shapes a Terraced Home Above the Sea Horizon
Villa Boe crowns a steep plot in Indonesia, a house by Alexis Dornier that treats the hillside as a living framework rather than a backdrop. Arranged as a vertical sequence of rooms and terraces, it turns topography into plan, from the tucked garage at the base to a circular yoga platform that surveys hills and ocean. The result is brisk and composed, with indoor–outdoor life knitted into every level.
Light skims along off-white walls as teak soffits cast measured shade across steps and platforms. A pool cuts across the threshold, the waterline reading like a level mark against the hill.
This is a house on a steep site in Indonesia, conceived by Alexis Dornier as a built topography shaped by geometry and grade. Instead of one big mass, the composition breaks into rings and segments that control views, gather breeze, and choreograph how daily life climbs the slope.
Organize The Slope
The plan keys off concentric circles and radial lines set around the hilltop. That diagram decides where roofs lift, where walls tighten, and how each room turns toward sea and ridge in a steady rotation. At the base, the garage and entrance land the sequence; one level up, the living core spreads out in measured steps.
Stack And Setback
Functions stack, but the mass reads terraced, not towered. Platforms advance and recess to keep profiles low, letting each roofline slip under the next while maintaining clear views over planted edges. Two sleeping wings peel away to opposite sides so families gain privacy without losing that diagonal connection back to the social heart.
Shape The Roofs
Roof gestures carry the geometry into section, recalling mid-century experiments in view-making without pastiche. Their splayed lines frame horizon bands and drop deep shade, turning daylight into a material that guides circulation and rest. Underneath, teak ceilings warm the tone, and the soffits soften glare where inside and outside trade places.
Rooms In Motion
Kitchen, dining, and lounge pinwheel across a series of steps, each half level shifting the eye and the breeze. The pool doesn’t sit apart; it threads between platforms in short runs, broken by subtle level changes that invite barefoot movement and long pauses. At the crest, a circular yoga platform completes the diagram with a clear, contemplative ring.
Material Restraint
A pared palette does the heavy lifting so form and light stay primary. White Palimanan stone underfoot keeps surfaces cool and tactile, while off-white walls give edges a crisp outline against sky and vegetation. The restraint anchors the house to climate and hill, avoiding fuss yet never reading thin.
As afternoon shadows lengthen, terraces shade in bands and the water turns a deeper green. The hill holds the composition, and the concentric order keeps it calm—architecture as a clear frame through which the wider landscape reads true.
Photography by KIE
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