Nyrenstone Estate: Circular Living Along Lombok’s Dramatic Hillside
Nyrenstone Estate steps down a steep hillside in Indonesia, tracing circles and tangents across the Tampah Hills landscape. Designed by Alexis Dornier as a house for two families, it reads as a measured response to slope, view, and movement rather than a singular object dropped on the land. Curving rooms, calm materials, and a tiered layout create a sequence that moves from communal energy to quiet retreat.
Descending from the crest, the rooflines fall in measured steps, cutting slim shadows across pale stone and teak. Curved rooms open toward the bay, catching light that slides in from morning until late afternoon.
Nyrenstone Estate is a house in Indonesia’s Tampah Hills, conceived by Alexis Dornier as a terraced sequence rather than a single object. The dwelling tracks the steep topography through a composition of circles and tangents, aligning everyday routines with the contours of the hillside. Movement, view lines, and the gradual shift between communal life and retreat sit at the core of the plan.
Lounges, dining areas, and fireplaces gather within circular rooms where people come together and linger. Above and around these shared zones, private wings extend outward for two families, while a circular yoga platform crowns the upper level with an unobstructed bay panorama.
Stepping With The Hill
From the top of the plot, the architecture descends in controlled stages rather than as a single drop. Each level adjusts to the natural fall of the land, so floors never feel forced against the hillside yet still read as deliberate terraces. This stepping movement echoes the curve of the coastline below, turning what could be a harsh gradient into a gentle procession. The house grows more embedded as it descends, trading elevation for a closer relationship with rock, vegetation, and changing light.
Circles As Organizing Rooms
Circular geometries sit at the heart of the plan and govern how people gather, pause, and look out. Shared lounges, dining rooms, and hearths occupy these rounded volumes, setting up informal centers where movement slows and conversations stretch. From these cores, paths arc outward to the more linear bedroom wings, keeping family areas close yet distinct. The yoga platform at the top continues the motif, giving the highest point a clear, calm purpose and a direct connection to sky and horizon.
Routing Views And Movement
Circles and tangents don’t only shape rooms; they steer how bodies and sightlines move through the house. Roofs project outward to frame long views and to guide the eye along the coastline rather than away from it. As someone walks between levels, new angles on the bay appear and recede, so the landscape is read in fragments rather than in a single glance. This controlled sequencing recalls John Lautner’s use of strong geometric anchors to organize generous, fluid volumes around them.
Calm Material Rhythm
Warm teak ceilings, off-white walls, and pale Palimanan stone floors set a restrained palette that supports the strong geometry. Finishes repeat from room to room, allowing the curved plan and shifting levels to speak without visual noise. Sunlight picks up the grain of the timber overhead and softens against the light stone underfoot, giving the terraced levels a steady rhythm from morning to evening. With this consistent material frame, the house recedes into the hillside profile while still reading as a clear, sculpted silhouette from afar.
Two families share the estate, yet the composition keeps their routines from feeling compressed or chaotic. Communal circles sit at the center, while the branching wings stretch just far enough to create privacy without disconnection. At the top, the yoga platform folds quiet ritual into the daily pattern, tying the most introspective moments back to the view that first shaped the project.
By the time one returns to the upper terraces, the curve of the bay and the arc of the plan feel tightly linked. Light slides along teak and stone, slipping between roofs that echo the hillside rather than fight it. Nyrenstone Estate stands as a measured reading of slope and horizon, using circles and levels to turn a demanding gradient into a calm, inhabitable descent.
Photography by KIE
Visit Alexis Dornier
