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Mar/Apr 2015
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remarkable for the workmanship and
imagination of their conceivers. For all of the
top-class Bali hotels we have been lucky
enough to stay in, for every luxury villa we
have visited, the bamboo homes in the jungle
near Ubud have something over all of them.
That comes not just from the beauty of
material used, but also that it is so eco-friendly
and sustainable. For us to really appreciate
that and to learn just how flexible this material
is (both literally and metaphorically) it was
time to go back to school. It wasn’t the Green
School, but the open-air area by the pool in
the Green Village wasn’t the worst place to
go back to class.
Our first lesson of the day came in the form
of a modelling class that highlighted the skills
www.essential-bali.com
of the people who designed the bamboo
delights we were soon to explore. There’s
no computer modelling for these talented
artisans, but small, intricate and detailed
to-scale models of the larger constructions to
come. (Computer modelling is used to ensure
“I would never have imagined how something
as natural and simple as bamboo could result in
something so beautiful and epic.”
Sameer, www.greenvillagebali.com
structural integrity at the engineering phase.)
We were asked to imagine a house design
and sketch out the floor plan. Then it was
a case of creating a roof style that had a
little bit of magic. Already it was becoming