De Oaze, located in the Tomang district of West Jakarta, is a townhouse offering a double deck concept with beautiful landscaping on top. Working in a non-uniform site, +7500 m2 in size, forced the architect to think hard about how to create 46 housing units there ranging between 218 m2 – 270 m2 per unit. The design of De Oaze is different than that of other townhouses, because aside from employing a double deck system, De Oaze also uses a paraped system in the organization of its dwelling units; the paraped system allows for communal spaces among the dwellings, in homage to the characteristic values of Asians, who like to socialize with their neighbors. The garden area is dominated by water elements between the common spaces, which are furnished with various kinds of facilities, such as a swimming pool, tropical garden and a barbeque area. Each home unit has a ground floor that functions as a service and car parking area, and a first floor used as shared space with a large opening into the garden area, while the second floor features private areas for each family member. The positive impact of the construction of De Oaze is that it has triggered the revival of a forgotten area of the city. And with its progressive design style, the De Oaze constitutes a modern dwelling for today’s urban community.
The De Oaze Town House, which employs a double-decker system, offers a fascinating concept of building and landscape. The architect of the De Oaze has mainly conceived the landscape as an extension of the interior space of the dwelling units – visually and spatially, as well as for socializing. De Oaze applies a modern and minimalist approach to the tropical garden, as seen in the use of plant varieties that are of diverse colors, textures, and characters, yet easy to care for. Interestingly, the garden areas are also dominated by water elements that bring in the spattering sound of fresh water, with the patterned interplay of natural stones and the composition of the wood of the pedestrian walkway as supporting elements, to make you feel as if you have stepped into in an oasis in the midst of the crowded city. The grass-layered roof functions to absorb rainwater and heat. Thinking not only of the garden alone, the architect has also taken into consideration the circulation of people on foot: the dynamic design of the walkway is supported by the diversity of plants all along the way, which creates surprising visual effects along with giving the user an experience of journeying through a new space. So pedestrians will never feel bored as they move through the gardens. The concept of this work by Cosmas D. Gozali is highly successful, because aside from being visually appealing, the gardens of De Oaze also thrive as a habitat that attracts many animals such as birds and butterflies to fly around them.
