The Mediterranean-style South Forbes Villas, launched early this year, caters to homebuyers with a budget of between P4 and P5 million for the house-and-lot packages. And now comes the bigger and more luxurious Bali Mansions, inspired by Asian modern design and lifting elements from all over Southeast Asia, not just from the Indonesian island resort.
Designed by Atelier Almario, the first of three Bali Mansions model units is not of the traditional Balinese design – no thatched roofing, no indigenous materials or building techniques were used, not even the very colorful Balinese doors that you see all over the artists’ enclave that is Ubud. In a way, Bali design per se – or at least as we know its traditional expression – is lost in the interpretation but very much alive in the spirit of tropical internationalism. It’s a reworking of the very broad Asian modern style, revolving around western furniture pieces such as a Christian Liaigre-inspired sofa and Kelly Hoppen’s fabulous fishbowl accents combined with the somber colors of wood carvings and silk from Thailand (which are as far away as colorful Balinese carvings can go), prints from China, and Japanese-style wooden furnishings.
Within South Forbes City itself, the architectural journey that its clusters of homes are taking is notable. From the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia to Japan to Shanghai to Great Britain – all these styles in one planned city make for an exciting future.
Coralia, the first phase of Bali Mansions to open, has lots measuring 258 square meters. Its indoor area is 169 sq.m.; its outdoor area is 88 sq.m., most of it occupied by the pond out front, the porch on the side and a two-car garage. Lots here are priced in the neighborhood of P11,000 per sq.m. while the house-and-lot packages are around P8 million. The bigger cuts are soon to open in the Nusa Dua and Lovina sections whose model units are soon to be completed with three floors each. This early, the first phase of Bali Mansions has nearly sold out its 167 lots while the second phase, with 197 lots, has just opened.
When you think about it, 258 square meters isn’t that big. We saw a similarly sized empty lot beside the unit (measuring approximately 15x15 meters) and mistook it for the model unit’s garden. Yet when we walked through the model unit, we saw just how spacious 258 sq.m. can be when its interior is designed really well.
A pond by the entrance gives you an inkling of the island-villa inspiration while inside an open plan for the living and dining rooms lends more space for entertaining. Also on the ground floor is an entertainment room that’s specifically designed to be converted into a guestroom should the need arise.
Bernice Flores of Atelier Almario, project manager for the Coralia model unit, says that the sofa was "inspired from catalogues in the US like City Studio and the designers combined a lot of modern furniture designs."
Just outside the entertainment room is the dining room and the wall between the two rooms is covered with mirrors – a space that a posed a design dilemma in the beginning since putting shelves would have made it look cluttered while leaving it blank would have made it boring. Mirrors, a favorite trick of designers, proved to be just the right solution.
The furnishings downstairs are a combination of cream and green, starting with the raffia shades from Cagayan de Oro that cover the tall windows. With a ceiling height of more than six meters and glass doors opening to a porch right outside the dining room, you certainly get a lot of view of the outdoors.
A Balinese element incorporated in this space is the famously delicate Balinese hand carving. A symbol of both Balinese dance and culture, the wooden hands are mounted on black squares, giving grace and fluidity to the contemporary space. Opposite the tall windows is a huge Thai wooden carving of a flower, somber in its color and providing a counterpoint to the geometric wood that adorns the façade and the interiors of the ground floor. Other Asian touches are added with Chinese jade accents on the throws. Inspired by designer Kelly Hoppen, the numerous fishbowls covered from the inside with large leaves give the green, Thai silk-covered dining chairs continuity and add a playful touch to the room.
Upstairs, the colors of two of the three rooms are a showstopper. If the neutrals downstairs may prove too calm, the walls here have certainly let loose. Apple green and fuchsia color the girl’s room, while red inspires passion in the master’s bedroom, making one feel very royal with its slatted four-poster bed. The boy’s room is more subdued with light browns and golds and a mature, leather headboard.
Bernice says, "Why red for the master’s bedroom? It’s a big room so it’s appropriate that we use a strong, bold color. We wanted to incorporate something that would go with the fabrics. We choose the fabrics first before we choose the wall colors, which is the typical way we plan the scheme of a room. We get the colors from the fabrics or the wallpaper pattern if we’re using one."
Headed by Ivy and Cynthia Almario, Atelier Almario is a design firm with five interior designers and five architects. "We work with partners," says Bernice. "One designer gets at least six to eight projects in half a year. Ivy will go in first with the planning, the layout, then Cynthia with the furniture, color schemes, and accessories. Ivy focuses on interior architecture while Cynthia on the finishing."
Is there an Almario trademark in all their projects? "All projects are different, but you see a sort of trademark in the symmetry, the balance of furniture pieces and the architectural details," she says.
One more thing about Atelier Almario’s design: The accessories. They can go from Cynthia’s wonderful flower and grass arrangements to the art they select for the walls. In Coralia, minimalist calla lily arrangements are scattered all over the house, giving it a soothing, almost introspective feel, while the Asian prints framed in dark wood and the wooden carvings remind you of the roots of Bali Mansions’ theme: Southeast Asia and how it has truly become a global style.