Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.Photo by Tomasso Riva.

For most of us, quarantine was a time of baking extravaganzas, newfound hobbies and pyjama-clad Zoom calls. But in Maximilian Eicke‘s case, the isolation was a little more life-changing. The German-born designer, who shuttles between The Hamptons and Southeast Asia, used the time to build a house for his family in Bali.

The catch? The site, originally a rice field, wasn’t the nicest of properties. The terrain was barren and life-starved. So what happened next was rather serendipitous.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Stefano Scata.Photo by Tomasso Riva.

“A massive rainstorm submerged the land in 10-foot-high water,” says Eicke. And so, as a measure to abate potential flooding, the designer commissioned 450 truckloads of soil. But the result was far greater than he expected.

What was born was a thriving (albeit accidental) landscape, full of palms and ferns and Bodhi trees–which Eicke then complemented with terracing, pretty ponds and luxuriant foliage.

Instead of just one single building, Eicke decided to split the living quarters into two parts—a main house and a guest house—and christened the habitat ‘Dukuh Haus’, the Indonesian word(s) for ‘hamlet’.

Photo by Stefano Scata.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.Photo by Tomasso Riva.

Photo by Tomasso Riva.

When it came to the architectural language, Eicke went eclectic. While he gave the main house a serious face, with a weighty material palette of solid steel, teak and marble, he made the guest house unfussy, with clean lines and white walls riffing on a more understated aesthetic.

The thing about Eicke’s design journey is that it wasn’t just about creating a house. It was also about everything in it—from the layouts and furniture right down to the forks and spoons. So when you sit down and take it all in, you can’t help but be reminded of greats like Frank Lloyd Wright, who were famous for designing the minutest of details. In the curves of Eicke’s spoons, there’s a sculptural quality that almost makes you want to put it back down and bubblewrap it for posterity.

[Images courtesy of Maximilian Eicke. Photography by Tomasso Riva and Stefano Scata.]

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