Yes, but not as freehold. Freehold title (Hak Milik) is reserved for Indonesian citizens under Basic Agrarian Law No. 5 of 1960. A foreign client therefore works through a lease (Hak Sewa, typically 25 to 30 years, renewable), a right of use (Hak Pakai), or a foreign-owned Indonesian company (PT PMA) holding a right to build (HGB), granted for 30 years and extendable by 20 then 30 more. The structure is chosen with an Indonesian notary (notaris) before the land is bought, never after: the title is where liability sits, and a mistake at that stage cannot be repaired at permit stage.
PBG (Persetujuan Bangunan Gedung) replaced the former IMB in 2021, under Law No. 11 of 2020 and Government Regulation No. 16 of 2021. It is obtained before works start, through the national SIMBG portal, and is based on the technical compliance of the design rather than on a simple authorisation. On completion, the SLF (Sertifikat Laik Fungsi) certifies that the building is safe and fit for occupation; it is required before any use or rental. We coordinate these steps with local engineers and consultants (see the detailed guide to building permits in Bali), and the design programme is built around them rather than the other way round.
Allow more time than you think. On our current sites, from first sketch to handover, a villa takes two to three years: a few months of study and design, permit review running in parallel, then twelve to eighteen months of construction depending on size and site access. THE CANOPY, in Ubud, started earthworks in 2026 for delivery in August 2027. An office project such as SAS Headquarters, 1,300 m² over three levels, runs to a comparable rhythm. The rainy season and material supply weigh as heavily on that calendar as the drawing does.
There is no honest price per square metre in Bali: two villas of the same size can differ threefold, and quoting a figure in the abstract would help nobody. What actually drives the cost: site access, which governs how materials reach the plot and can move a budget on its own; topography, because a sloping parcel needs foundations and retaining work a flat one does not; the level of finish, where the gap is widest, between standard tiling and stone cut by hand for the project; the share of bespoke work, since every drawn piece of furniture is made once and only once; and technical equipment — infinity pool, water treatment, air conditioning, home automation. We price project by project, after seeing the land, and our fees are stated by phase in the initial proposal, with no hidden percentage on the construction cost.
Three checks are worth more than a beautiful portfolio. Ask to see completed buildings, not only renders: in Bali, many published projects were never built. Establish who will run the site day to day, and in which language that person speaks to the craftsmen, because that is where projects are lost, not at the drawing stage. Then look at whether one studio's villas resemble each other: if they do, you will be sold a variant of an existing plan. Add the dull but decisive questions — who coordinates the PBG, who answers when the land springs a surprise, how fees are structured.
Yes. Sara Sieradzan is French, trained at École Boulle and ENSAD Paris, and based in Bali. The project can be run entirely in French if you prefer: correspondence, documents, decisions. The same person then speaks Indonesian to the engineering office and the contractor, and addresses Balinese craftsmen directly. For a French-speaking client, that removes the translating intermediary — and with it most of the misunderstandings that turn expensive on site.
Across the island, with sites concentrated in the south and centre: Uluwatu, Ungasan, Melasti, Canggu, Berawa, Umalas and Ubud. We also work on the island of Sumba, and in Europe — fourteen stone villas and a 36-room hotel in the South of France. The studio takes selected projects elsewhere in Asia.
There is none, in the sense that they are the same hands. The studio draws the building, its interiors, its furniture and its lighting, from masterplan to door handle. You can commission the whole, or only interiors and furniture within an existing building. What does not change is that one person holds the thread of the project from the first sketch to the last sample.
French, English, Indonesian and Polish. In practice that means the same person speaks to a European client, an Indonesian engineering office and a Balinese craftsman without a translator in between — which, on a building site, prevents most of the expensive misunderstandings.
Most of our clients do. The project advances through regular video calls, shared sketches and renders, and material boards shipped physically when matter has to be touched. On the ground, project direction is carried by the studio: site visits, supervision of the craftsmen, decisions taken as they arise. You do not need to be in Bali to build there, but somebody does, and that is our role.
The island's own, wherever possible: ulin ironwood, teak, bamboo, volcanic stone, travertine, terracotta, micro-cement, brass, rattan and linen. Materials are chosen sample by sample with Indonesian artisans, and part of them are reclaimed — old stone and worn beams, which give new work a depth no new material provides.
Yes. Furniture, lighting and joinery are drawn for the project and made locally. It is often what separates a house from a furnished house: pieces conceived for their place, at their dimensions, in the materials of the building.
Never. It is the studio's rule, and the only reason it is called architecture d'auteur: no design is ever repeated. Every project is drawn by hand from its land, its orientation, its trees and its client. In a Bali where many villas are duplicated from plot to plot, that is a position, not a selling point.
From a small structure to a built ensemble. The studio has built a bamboo yoga shala around a living tree, private villas from 270 to 390 m², a 1,300 m² office building for 180 employees, an ensemble of fourteen villas and a 36-room hotel. What matters is not the floor area but the freedom left to the drawing.
With a conversation, before any drawing. We talk about the land, how you want to live on it, budget and timing, and what the place imposes. From that comes a statement of intent and a fee proposal by phase. The first line is drawn only after that.