“When I was 9 years old my mom asked me what I would want my house to look like and I drew a fairy mushroom”.
Elora Hardy – beautiful dreamer at nine and inspiring successful woman today – is proving the world that impossible is possible by building houses with no walls and round shaped doors. Founder and creative director of IBUKU, Elora and her team explore revolutionary ways of using bamboo to redefine luxury.
Green Village is a project of breathtaking private homes located into the lush tropical jungle of Ubud – Bali.
Developed as an extension of the Green School community – the world-renowned place where education is set all around the principles of sustainability and innovation – the village rises right next to the terraced slopes of the Ayung River.
The beautiful structures showcase bamboo – combined with brass, copper, and stone – as the most renewable and versatile building material ever known. In fact it has been used across all tropical regions for thousand years and it’s still the most optimistic promise for the future because of its strength, flexibility, abundance and fine elegance.
Elora, grew up in Bali but has never studied architecture before; she lived in the US for 14 years, studied fine arts, and designed prints for Donna Karan before moving back to Bali in 2010. She’s now teaming up with her father, John Hardy, the Green School Founder.
Elora’s vision is to provide spaces in which people can live in an authentic relationship with nature. “We do this by designing fully functional homes and furniture that are made of natural substances and built in ways that integrate with nature,” she explains, “the materials we use, the people we work with, and the land we build on all inform our design process. The traditional skills of Balinese craftsmen, combined with our design ideas and modern engineering enable us to create original bamboo structures that meet the needs of a diverse clientele.”
Ibuku has built over 60 bamboo structures in Bali, Indonesia, and around the region. Completed key projects include the Green School, Green Village, Sharma Springs, and Bambu Indah Hotel, which have appeared in international publications like Architectural Digest, Vogue and the Huffington Post. Upcoming projects are underway in West Africa, Lombok, and Bali.
Photo © Rio-Helmi, Keiko Chiba, Rocky Bachelor, Monique Deacaro, Agung Dwi, Shaan Hurley
