Loft Carolyn 2

Gang Yudistira is one of the narrow lanes running off Jalan Pantai Berawa, and Loft Carolyn 2 announces itself with nothing more than a slab of oiled timber set as a pivot door into a white wall. Behind it the building opens straight up: a double-height room floored in polished concrete, a wall of sliding glass at the far end, and through the glass a plunge pool cut into a grey timber deck against a stone-clad wall. Two hundred and fifty square metres for two people is an unusual proportion, and it is what makes the place work — this is a loft in the New York sense, one volume with a bed suspended in it, rather than a small villa.

The ground floor is arranged along one wall and left otherwise empty. A deep grey sectional sits on the concrete under a black fan with an industrial coffee table of steel and timber in front of it; behind that, a long solid-timber table takes moulded white chairs on one side and bar stools on the other, lit by three black dome pendants with brass throats. The kitchen is a galley of white units and concrete counters with raw concrete slabs floating above them for glassware, a gas hob, a fridge, a coffee maker and enough pans to matter. Slide the glass back and the room simply ends at the water, which is the point of the whole plan.

The staircase is the piece everyone photographs: solid timber treads cantilevered off a black steel stringer, no risers, climbing to a mezzanine where the bedroom sits behind a steel-framed internal window that looks down over the living room. A wall of exposed red brick runs behind the king bed with a light concealed above the headboard, and there is a proper desk and a connection quick enough for calls. The en-suite is lined floor to ceiling in raw concrete, with twin rain showers behind a sheet of glass, a stone vessel basin on a concrete shelf and a skylight overhead that turns the whole room the colour of wet stone in the afternoon.

Housekeeping arrives every day, and beyond that the concierge is most useful for one thing in particular: there is no car parking at the loft, only room for motorbikes, so a scooter or a standing taxi arrangement is what actually makes this address easy. Two warungs sit within a hundred metres for breakfast, which is why almost nobody orders it in. When you want the table used properly, a cook will come and use it; when the surf has finished you off, a therapist sets up downstairs. Two adults, no children under twelve, and a level of quiet you do not expect this close to Berawa.

Loft Carolyn 2 is a piece of architecture rented by the night rather than a villa dressed up as one. Seventy-six guests have rated it 4.92, and what most of them remark on is the sheer volume of it: two people, one enormous concrete room, and a pool you can fall into from the sofa.