Fusilier Cottage and the Studio, an island affair

Since I was a little boy, I have harboured a love of architecture.

Were it not for a messed-up maths education at my 1970s Tasmanian high school, I might have become an architect. As it is, I studied education and I am now an international education consultant. No regrets! Such is life!

I work as program director for INOVASI, a major development program, funded by the Australian government. I love my job helping Indonesia to improve its basic education system. But architecture has always been a second love.

Tasmanian born and bred, for thirty years I have lived in Indonesia. I live on the island of Lombok, with regular trips to Jakarta for work. I love Indonesia, but Hobart and Tasmania will always be home. (You can take the boy out of the island, but you can never take the island out of the boy, as they say.) My family and I live between two countries, Indonesia and Australia; two islands, Lombok and Tasmania.

So, when the opportunity came to acquire the little Georgian cottage in Battery Point known as Fusilier Cottage, I jumped at it. We worked with architects, Bence-Mulcahy, and builder, Thylacine Constructions, to create a contemporary extension to the 1838 cottage. The architecture has now been recognized in both state and national awards.

In Lombok, we embarked on another architectural experiment. After searching across the islands of Indonesia for the ideal location, we settled in the hills of West Lombok, east of Bali. Like Tasmania, Lombok is a precious gem – an unpolished diamond a little out of the mainstream. There we worked with a group of friends – Indonesian and international – to create The Hill, an eclectic mix of villas and homes overlooking the Lombok Strait.

Our home, The Studio, was created by a Lombok-Balinese couple, an architect and builder, called the Adimas group. It consists of a two-story, open-to-sky villa and two smaller cottages, set in a one-hectare sculptured jungle garden. Like Fusilier Cottage, the Studio is a blend of old and new. Like Fusilier Cottage, it is a work of the heart. Recycled carved teak panels and timbers from Java have been reassembled in Lombok. The houses are an artful blend of Javanese vernacular, contemporary living, and environmental ethic.

And, like Fusilier Cottage in Hobart, we open our Lombok home up to visitors, running the complex as a guesthouse. Visitors can stay in the two-bedroom joglo, a three-bedroom traditional Javanese cottage, or the five-bedroom Villa Laras.

Check us out here: https://www.thestudiolombok.com/

In between hosting guests and working in education, we come and go – living between two islands. And my love affair with architecture, with the old and the new, with my two island homes, Tasmania and Lombok, continues.

So, if you enjoy Fusilier Cottage in Tasmania, why not enjoy our hospitality in a completely different island setting? The Studio in Lombok!