At Home in Bali [Hardcover]

Made Wijaya (Author), Isabella Ginanneschi (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

Since early this century, Bali's paradisiacal beauty and the remarkable spirit of its people have attracted a steady stream of artists, architects, anthropologists, mystics, and celebrities from all over the world, and the new residents have interpreted traditional Balinese style with elegant, chic, eccentric, and unusual results.

Featured in this exquisitely illustrated volume are some twenty of the most exceptional homes on the island, all shown in their lush tropical surroundings. They include homes in the traditional village style; pondoks, or the single-pavilion dwellings of the rice fields; royal palaces, such as Woolite heiress Carole Muller's luxury cottage on the upper terrace of the summer palace of East Bali's last king; beach houses; temples; spectacular mountain residences; and homes with magnificently designed gardens.

A visitor's guide and an international source list of Balinese wares completes this insider's tour of the island. Photographed by Isabella Ginanneschi, who lives half the year in Bali, and written by architect and garden designer Made Wijaya, At Home in Bali is the next best thing to being there.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Photographer Isabella Ginanneschi, who lives in Bali six months out of the year, is represented by the Staley-Wise Gallery in New York and also works as an art director and commercial photographer for Vogue Italia (interiors), John Hardy (jewelry), Felissimo (home and fashion), and the Bali Four Seasons Resort. She has done creative work for Calvin Klein, Barneys New York, Revlon, Romeo Gigli, and Oscar de la Renta. Made Wijaya, also known as Michael White, an architect, landscape designer, dancer, and tennis coach, is the author of The Encyclopedia of Balinese Architecture and writes the "Stranger in Paradise" column for the Sunday Bali Post. An Australian, he has lived in Bali since 1973.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789204673
• ISBN-13: 978-0789204677
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,361,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Travel > Asia > Indonesia > Bali

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homes with Personality - Bali Style, August 27, 2000

By 

Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Home in Bali (Hardcover)

With an eye for style and a love of -make that obsession with- personality, Made Wijaya leads the reader on a glorious tour of Bali's most stylish homes.

Text covers not only design sensibility but also the general history of homes, gardens, and sometimes whole villages. This attention to pedigree may irk that reader who's looking only for design tips or sources, but that's pure Wijaya. His unique descriptions are amusing and his name-dropping stays on the polite side of gossip. Reading this book, I became grateful to Wijaya for caring enough to record the architectural history of Batu Jimbar, Sayan, and other pockets of Bali chic. Just as the jungle can overgrow a garden in one rainy season, historical details can be lost as people die or move on... Wijaya's appetite for who's who has spawned this delightful record of what hands moulded the walls, seeded the gardens, and chose the accessories for any featured house.

The vast majority of homes in the book are owned by expatriate designers and artists. This makes for a great array of styles and personalities, and although this book seems to concentrate on quirkiness and individuality, the lighting, atmosphere, and sensibility are definitely and purely Bali. A fine book richly illustrated with Ginanneschi's photographs. A better investment than the usual Periplus style books.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars low quality photography, April 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: At Home in Bali (Hardcover)

I agree with Mr. Chiu in one of the previous reviews. I was expecting great photography in this type of book, but instead the book is filled with small, grainy, blury pictures. A much better 'Coffee Table' book is 'Tropical Asian Style', in my opinion.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 4, 2002

By 

Po H. Chiu (Singapore,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At Home in Bali (Hardcover)

First my complaints.

For what I consider to be a coffee table book, the quality of the photographs (on average 1-2 per page), was incredibly poor. They were simply very blurry and not sharp at all.

The book also doesn't quite know whether it wants to be a book on architecture, interior design or Bali society gossip column. I especially hated the constant name dropping on "so and so" used to be the life of the Bali party scene and how extravagant the parties were (well, I guess that has gone away definitely since the Bali bombings). I don't mind a short blurbs on the owners, but enough is enough.

Now to the good points.

The author is a well known and accomplished landscape architect in Bali, so he obviosly knows what he is talking about and what the owner was trying to accomplish in creating these wonderful houses.

But I think you can get the same thing from other recent books by the same author, which has much sharper and clearer photos.