Location: Ubud, Indonesia

Design Team: PSA Studio

Area: 1,973 m²

Year: 2025

Photography: Mario Wibowo

Design Features: The Kemilau Ubud is a 1,973 m² hotel in Ubud, Bali, designed by PSA Studio. It did not begin with a blank site. The architects' diagram identifies existing volumes that were retained or removed, then redistributes reception, commercial functions and accommodation along the long plot. A garden and a winding pool translate the idea of forest and river into a sequence of inhabited spaces between buildings.

A series of adjoining volumes gives the project its structure. Reception and commercial uses occupy the arrival end, while guestrooms extend farther into the site. Rooflines shift in height and direction, lending each section a distinct profile. From the street, these layered roofs establish the hotel's presence; deeper inside, buildings give way to courtyards, planting and water. The pool is more than a separate amenity: it becomes a thread through the accommodation areas.

The narrow pool bends between rooms and gardens, introducing the turns and pauses of a watercourse. Shared interiors open toward planted courts, while rear circulation connects the guestrooms. Views change from lounge to balcony, from covered passage to poolside, moving repeatedly between built surfaces and vegetation. Individual rooms find their own relationship to the landscape through openings, terraces and nearby planting.

Wood, stone and local vegetation form the project's principal material and landscape vocabulary. Their textures are allowed to remain legible instead of being concealed beneath elaborate finishes. Timber ceilings and furnishings give the interiors a warmer, more intimate scale; the firmer outer walls and screens echo the stepped character of the roofs. Moving through the courts, differences in texture, shade and daylight mark the transition from shared areas to private rooms.

The Kemilau Ubud is less an attempt to reproduce nature than a careful rearrangement of existing structures, roofs, gardens and water. In daylight, the planted courts and meandering pool lend depth to a long, constrained site. At dusk, the roof profiles and entrance regain prominence. Together they make staying here a gradual spatial journey, one that brings Ubud's tropical setting into the ordinary rhythm of the hotel.

Design Team: PSA Studio was founded in Indonesia in 2007 by architects Ario Wirastomo and Ditta Astrini Wijayanti and is now based in Depok. Its work spans houses, villas, public spaces, interiors and furniture. The practice seeks spatial experiences responsive to their setting and treats material exploration as a way to give each project its own character.

Wirastomo studied architecture at Trisakti University in Jakarta before completing a master's degree in architectural design at the University of Indonesia. Wijayanti also graduated from Trisakti University and earned a master's degree in building technology from the University of Indonesia. Their complementary backgrounds inform the studio's dialogue between spatial ideas and construction. Both are credited as lead architects on this project.