Inside a South African interior designer’s dream home - sustainable living in the Indonesian jungle
Jennifer Newton has created an environmentally friendly jungle idyll in Lombok – ‘I wanted to grow my own food, be self-sufficient and explore if it was possible to live without consuming’
Jennifer Newton’s extensive imprint on Hong Kong homes runs the gamut from rustic glam to modern industrial, all with an appealing eco-conscious patina. But the interior designer was never entirely satisfied with her impact, despite the accolades she received. Media coverage – including by Post Magazine – praised the environmentally friendly and natural materials that went into many of her projects, she says, but frustration grew because that seemed as far as she could go.
“I wanted to do something that was really natural,” Newton says, from south Lombok, Indonesia. “I wanted to grow my own food, be self-sufficient and explore if it was possible to live without consuming.”
That meant adopting a way of life not even her new neighbours on the Indonesian island were entirely used to. South Africa-born Newton, who grew up in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and went to school in England, lived in Hong Kong for three years from 2006, after which she decamped to Sydney, Australia. In 2012, she moved to Bali, and Lombok followed two years later.
Mawun Mud Village, the mountain-ringed jungle idyll she created for herself, is the culmination of learning and experimenting with what her website describes as “holistic living and ecologically regenerative design and construction”. Four years since moving to the island, she now hopes to hand to another dream catcher all that she has built.
In addition to a dormitory and two bungalows (one still to be completed) are a couple of dwellings fashioned after traditional Indonesian rice barns, one of which she occupies. In her hilltop home, the living space, with hammock and floor cushions, is on the first level; the bedroom beneath a thatched roof; and the kitchen and dining area on the generous mud-plastered ground level.
Many materials have been salvaged, including the exposed beams, from old Lombok houses, and wood from abandoned boats, which she used to make furniture.