A villa on a steep hillside in Pandak Gede, organized around a 7.5-metre cantilever and shaped entirely by its panoramic views.
Architecture Does Not Tame the Slope.
It Allows the Slope to Become Part of the Architecture.
Two elongated volumes form a two-level composition that appears to hover above the slope. The upper and lower levels are connected through a system of cantilevered structures, while the swimming pool becomes an extension of the lower volume, projecting visually beyond the hillside.
The expressive character of the project is not an end in itself. As with other PREDMET.ARCHITECTURE projects, the architecture is driven by the specific qualities of its site — here, a steep terrain treated not as a limitation, but as the primary instrument shaping the villa's spatial organization, structure and visual identity.
Realizing a 7.5-metre cantilever while minimizing impact on the existing terrain was one of the project's central challenges. A heavy structural system would have required substantial intervention into the slope — cutting, retaining, reinforcing.
Instead, the villa was developed around a lightweight steel structural frame. The engineering challenge was not only to achieve the required strength and stiffness, but to preserve the visual lightness of the architecture — structural elements sized to carry significant cantilever loads while remaining as slender and visually discreet as possible.
Used as an Architectural Instrument, Not Decoration.
By reflecting the surrounding vegetation, selected mirrored surfaces visually dissolve structural elements and supports into the landscape. The upper cantilever is perceived as an independent floating volume, while the lower level and swimming pool appear to project directly above the terrain — the boundary between architecture and nature becomes less defined.
Structural Ambition, a Restrained Material Language, and a Close Relationship With the Surrounding Landscape.
Villa Interstellar is a private villa by PREDMET.ARCHITECTURE on a steep hillside in Pandak Gede, Bali. Two elongated volumes form a two-level composition that appears to hover above the slope, connected through a system of cantilevered structures, with a swimming pool that projects visually beyond the hillside.
The villa is built around a 7.5-metre cantilever, achieved with a lightweight steel structural frame rather than a heavy system that would require major intervention into the slope. The engineering challenge was to meet the structural loads of the cantilever while keeping the structure as slender and visually discreet as possible — the defining image of a villa that appears to hover above the terrain rather than stand on it.
Mirrored surfaces are used as an architectural instrument, not decoration. By reflecting the surrounding vegetation, they visually dissolve structural elements and supports into the landscape, blurring the boundary between the architecture and its natural surroundings.
A cantilevered structure on a steep slope requires a PBG (Persetujuan Bangunan Gedung) building permit backed by structural engineering documentation for the cantilever loads, plus geotechnical assessment of the slope itself. PREDMET.ARCHITECTURE manages the full PBG package and structural coordination, and favours lightweight steel framing over heavy substructure to minimize intervention into the terrain.
Yes — steep and difficult terrain is a specific strength of PREDMET.ARCHITECTURE's practice. Rather than treating a steep slope as a limitation, the studio uses it as the primary instrument shaping the spatial organization, structure and visual identity of a project, as with Villa Interstellar.
