In every neighborhood there’s always one odd ball.
And the upmarket gated community of Pondok Indah, home to Jakarta’s wealthy and well-known, is no exception.
In the midst of this collection of neo-classical homes, lies what has been nicknamed the “Leaning House of Jakarta”.
Built at a dramatic 70-degree angle, it is the rebellious brainchild of architect Budi Pradono.
Standing out among the crowd
Unlike the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Italy, which careens by mistake, the Leaning House of Jakarta is listing by design.
At first, says Pradono, it was going to slant “a little bit” — “maybe 10, 20 degrees”.
“Finally, we found that 70 degrees (was the perfect angle). So, we brought something new to this area, something striking.”
Pradono intends his beautiful oddity to serve as a rejection of the mock-European status houses in the upmarket neighborhood of the huge Indonesian capital.
Designed to stand out, the house also makes a statement about openness — its glass frontage rejecting the closed ethos of the gated community with which it shares a border.
Property boom
Over the past 7 years, property prices in Jakarta — home to 10 million people — have doubled, hitting a lofty $15,000 per square meter.
The Leaning House’s proprietor Christina Goux, a modern art gallery owner, bought the land the property now stands on a decade ago for just $500 a square meter — the value has since risen to $4,000 per square meter.
When building her home, she gave Pradono an open mandate.
“It’s my dream house,” she tells CNN. “If I build another house, it should be like this, too.”
Goux says she wants the three-story property to become a haven for visiting artists, exhibitions and small jazz concerts.
Pradono is proud of his creation, and its refusal to be classified.
“It is important to redefine architecture, redefine the new living space and how people live”, he adds.
