Studio
Atelier Nara began work in 2016 from a single rented room in Umbulharjo, with two people and one house project. Ten years later the studio holds six permanent staff and occupies a former 1970s house that we renovated ourselves in 2019 — our first adaptive reuse project, and still the place where we test almost everything we recommend to clients.
In those ten years, 41 projects reached contract stage. Twenty-six are standing, five are being built, and the rest stopped at design stage for various reasons: funding changed, land was sold, family plans shifted. We show some of that last group too.
Studio in numbers
- 2016
- Began work
- 41
- Projects under contract
- 26
- Buildings completed
- 5
- Under construction
- 6
- Permanent staff
- 6
- New projects a year, maximum
Team
Raka Danendra Wijaya
Principal Architect, founder
Undergraduate degree in architecture from a university in Bandung, master’s in architecture in Yogyakarta. Leads design on house and commercial projects, and attends the first site visit of every project in person.
Nadia Prameswari
Co-founder, Architect
Leads technical documentation and permits. Every set of working drawings that leaves the studio passes her check. Handles renovation and older-building projects, including Griya Kotabaru 1938.
Bagus Aryasatya
Architect
Team leader on house projects. Joined in 2019. Led Rumah Selasar and Rumah Deret Purwomartani.
Prita Halimah
Architect
Team leader on renovation and architectural interior projects. Joined in 2021.
Yoga Mahendra
Technical Drafter & BIM Coordinator
Builds the building model and issues the sets of working drawings. The point of coordination with the structural and MEP engineers.
Sekar Ayuningtyas
Studio Manager
Agreements, scheduling, invoicing, and client communication. The first person to reply to an incoming brief.
Plus two architecture students on placement each semester. Their names appear in the credits of the projects they work on — on the project page, under Credits, alongside the consultants and the contractor.
How we work with clients
Four habits stated as operational promises, not as adjectives.
- One of the principals attends the first site visit.
- Never delegated.
- Every meeting is followed by written notes
- recording the decisions taken and the matters still open, sent within two working days. Those notes are the reference if recollections later differ.
- Changes to the brief after a stage is closed are counted openly
- as additional work, at a value agreed in advance rather than invoiced quietly at the end.
- We take no commission from contractors, suppliers, or material manufacturers.
- Material recommendations rest on their suitability, and no third party pays us to name them.
Collaborators
No building is finished by one discipline. From the design development stage onward, our drawings are read and corrected by the following. Some have worked with us since the earliest projects.
- Structural engineer
- An independent practice in Yogyakarta, working with the studio since 2018. Calculates foundations, columns, beams, slabs, and roof structure; checks every proposed demolition on renovation projects.
- Mechanical & electrical engineer
- Handles water supply and drainage, electrical services, ventilation, and lightning protection. Brought in from design development rather than after the architectural drawings are finished — because pipe and duct routes that arrive late always end up passing through the wrong place.
- Quantity surveyor
- Brought in on projects with tight cost control, particularly developer projects. Prepares bills of quantities and checks contractor tenders.
- Main contractor
- The studio has no construction arm of its own and takes no commission from contractors. We keep a list of builders we have worked with and are willing to recommend two or three for comparison, but the decision rests entirely with the client.
- Land surveyor
- For plots without survey data that can be relied on.
- Soil investigation
- Sounding or boring, for projects of two storeys and above or plots with a history of fill.
- Specialist carpenter
- For joinery work and repairs to timber components in older buildings.
- Architectural photographer
- Works with us to document completed buildings. Credited on each project page.
- Landscape consultant
- Brought in on projects with a significant garden.
We take on a maximum of six new design projects a year. If the schedule is full we will say so in the first conversation, together with an estimate of when we could start — rather than accepting the work and then delaying it.
Tell us about your site
Send us the location, the plot area, and the rooms you need. We reply within two working days with an initial assessment — including if we think another practice would serve your project better.
We take on a maximum of six new design projects a year. Replies during working hours, Monday to Friday.