- Project: Ciasem House
- Architect: StudioKAS
- Location: Indonesia, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta
- Year: 2023
- Area: 828 m2
- Photography: Mario Wibowo
Stacked Volumes for Urban Privacy and Tropical Comfort
Amid Jakarta’s dense urban fabric, Ciasem House by STUDIOKAS presents a thoughtful architectural response to the dual challenges of privacy and tropical climate. Situated in the prestigious Kebayoran Baru neighborhood, the residence was designed for a family of five — a couple and their three children — seeking serenity within the city’s bustling environment.
Through a composition of three stacked and shifted boxes, the house achieves both spatial hierarchy and climatic responsiveness. Each volume serves a distinct function, balancing openness with seclusion while blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living.
Concept & Spatial Composition
The core idea of Ciasem House revolves around stacking — both as a structural and conceptual strategy. The architects used this vertical organization to address privacy gradients, environmental performance, and site compactness.
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First Level (Service & Utility Zone): The base volume grounds the house with functional spaces such as the garage, pantry, and MEP room, ensuring that maintenance activities remain separated from the family’s daily life.
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Second Level (Social Zone): Above, the main living area unfolds as a continuous open plan combining foyer, living, dining, and kitchen functions. Sliding glass doors dissolve boundaries between the interior and the garden terrace, creating a sense of spatial continuity.
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Third Level (Private Zone): The uppermost volume houses bedrooms for the parents and children, connected by a central courtyard and terrace. The main suite faces the street but is screened by timber louvers, filtering sunlight while maintaining privacy.
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Rooftop Level: The design culminates in a rooftop terrace, offering sweeping views over Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) and Jakarta’s skyline.
A separate vertical circulation core, expressed as a fourth box on the right side, contains stairs and an elevator, linking all levels while maintaining privacy between floors.
Architecture & Climate Response
In Jakarta’s tropical context — with intense sunlight and heavy rainfall — Ciasem House employs form as a passive environmental device. The shifted arrangement of the boxes generates overhangs and shaded voids, creating intermediate zones that protect interiors from heat and precipitation.
The middle box, characterized by solid street-facing walls, acts as a thermal buffer and privacy screen. The top box, semi-transparent and elevated, allows filtered daylight and cross ventilation while functioning as a large shading roof. The gaps between volumes foster air movement and create breezeways, significantly improving natural cooling and reducing dependence on mechanical systems.
Each volume is wrapped in distinct materials — concrete, wood, glass, and steel — emphasizing their independence while contributing to the home’s overall rhythm and texture. The interplay of material and massing lends the structure both monumentality and lightness, as if the boxes gently float above one another.
Material Palette & Detailing
Material differentiation reinforces the zoning logic:
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Ground Level: Exposed concrete and steel for durability and thermal stability.
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Middle Volume: Solid concrete panels for privacy and insulation.
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Top Volume: Wooden slats and glass to mediate light, air, and transparency.
This hierarchy of textures and densities enhances the façade’s layered appearance and creates a tactile experience that shifts with time and weather. The warmth of natural wood contrasts beautifully with the raw expressiveness of concrete, articulating both strength and elegance.
Interior Experience & Outdoor Integration
Inside, the design is guided by the principles of openness, connection, and fluidity. The living and dining areas feature a 3.2-meter ceiling height and full-height sliding glass doors that erase boundaries between the built and natural environments.
Daylight floods the interiors, while natural ventilation flows through cross openings and voids between the stacked forms. The resulting atmosphere is calm, breathable, and attuned to the tropical rhythm of the city.
The terraces and inner courtyards act as green lungs, providing shaded retreats and visual relief throughout the day. From every level, views extend outward — to lush gardens, neighborhood canopies, and the distant vertical skyline of SCBD — situating the family within both privacy and openness.
A Modern Tropical Home for Urban Life
Ciasem House is an exemplar of contemporary tropical architecture — one that transcends aesthetic expression to address environmental logic and family life. STUDIOKAS redefines luxury not through ornament or size but through climatic intelligence, material honesty, and spatial adaptability.
By stacking and shifting forms, the architects created a home that breathes, shades, and protects — a living structure in equilibrium with Jakarta’s dynamic climate.
