Sudut Ruang

NM House

Residential2022
NM House's white two-storey corner facade by day, a car and scooter parked behind the perforated gate.

A house built for now and engineered for later, letting an honest budget set the terms instead of hiding them.

NM House is built for now and drawn for later. Today it stands as a single complete floor, but its structure already carries the second — columns sized, loads accounted for, the plan holding room for a storey that will rise only when life asks for it. This is a special case, and the house says so plainly: a tight budget was not hidden behind gestures but allowed to set the terms, turning the question of cost into a clear method of building in stages without ever giving up the final vision.

That method begins with honesty about priorities. On a modest plot in a dense Bandung neighbourhood, there is no room for a house that arrives all at once. The design separates what is needed immediately from what can wait, then maps each phase and its cost from the outset, so the house grows in deliberate steps rather than improvised additions. What looks like a finished home is really a first chapter, written so the next one follows cleanly.

NM House's living room, a wall-mounted TV above a walnut credenza, grey sectional sofa and a wood-framed lounge chair.
Two round wood stools on the lawn beneath a variegated shrub, beside a dark tiled walkway.
An open wardrobe rail, handbags lined on the shelf above hanging jackets and shirts.
A bedroom with white linens on the bed, a round mirror standing on a dark dressing table.
The carport by day, mesh gate open to a silver car and scooter, a mango tree overhead.
A corner with a white textured canvas, a cone pendant lamp, and a black leather lounge chair beside a side table.
A round side table holding a black mug, an open photo book and a pair of glasses.
The carport at dusk, gate lit and car headlights on, a mango tree silhouetted against the evening sky.
A wall-mounted TV above a walnut credenza, a white air purifier standing beside it.
A doorway view into the home office, a pendant lamp over a desk with a monitor and keyboard.
A round speaker on a dark wood side table beside a black leather lounge chair.
The living room's sectional sofa and wall-mounted TV, the inner court visible through a glass sliding door.

Everything else is reduced to what a house actually needs. The form is plain and the rooms are sized to their use, with nothing carried for effect. Within that discipline the interior stays deliberately subtle: shades of grey against white walls, with dark wood for weight. The greys hold the surfaces steady, the white keeps small rooms bright and unhurried, and the dark wood lands where the body meets the house — a door pull, a sill, a shelf edge. The palette is neutral by intent, not by default: the cheapest material decision here, and also the most composed.

The entry is direct, and deliberately so. There is no hallway and no staging — the door opens straight into the shared open area, and from that first step almost the whole house is visible at once. A house this size cannot afford a corridor, so openness does the work a sequence would, and the plan reads in a single glance instead of unfolding room by room.

What keeps that openness from feeling contained is one grand opening onto the inner court. It is the house's single generous gesture and its entire climate answer: a wide aperture that puts the court and the living space on the same terms, letting air cross the plan and daylight reach the depth of a modest footprint. Storage, meanwhile, folds into the walls and disappears.

A wide view of the living room, sofa and TV facing the air purifier, the courtyard visible through the glass door.
The kitchen, a white refrigerator and dark wood cabinetry along one wall, sink and hob along the counter.
A coffee station and water dispenser built into the kitchen cabinetry beside the refrigerator.
A dining table set with rice, side dishes and a bottle of water, beneath a cone pendant and a textured white canvas.
The kitchen's white refrigerator and dark wood cabinetry, a pendant light bar overhead.
NM House's corner facade with its gate and "NM" nameplate, a car and scooter parked in the carport.
Rain on the glass sliding door beside the inner court's tree, the darkened living room visible through it.
A wide view through the glass partition: the living area on one side, the dining table and kitchen coffee station on the other.
The kitchen's coffee and water-dispenser nook beside the refrigerator, seen close.
A diagonal view through the glass partition toward the dining table and kitchen, the living room in the foreground.
Location
Bandung Regency, Indonesia
Year
2022
Status
Completed
Services
Architecture Design, Interior Design, Supervision
Photography
Mada Riyanhadi
A variegated tree at the inner court, rain on the glass, the darkened living room visible beyond.

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