Villa Aura

The plaque by the front door reads Aura, Villa 06, one of eleven houses at Lumera Hills in the hills above Bingin. The plan puts the pool alongside the living pavilion rather than in front of it, so the water runs the length of the house in a travertine channel and every room looks straight across it. A curved white roof folds out over the walkway, cutting a hard band of shade onto the pale stone, and the planting is deliberately dense — banana palms, traveller’s palms and heliconia crowding the boundary, with the tiled roof of a village temple showing above the wall on one side.

Slide the glass back and the living pavilion becomes part of the terrace. A long oatmeal banquette runs beneath a vaulted white ceiling with a low teak table in front of it and the screen set into the timber wall opposite. The kitchen is built into the same full-height oak joinery, with cooktop, extractor, refrigerator and coffee machine behind flush doors, and a honed travertine island turns out into the room with timber stools drawn up along it. A teak dining table sits at the garden end, where the glass frames the greenery and the temple roof beyond.

The two bedrooms sit either side of the living space, both kings, both with their own bathrooms. One opens through full-height sliding glass directly onto the pool deck; the other is quieter, tucked against a planted side courtyard with a slim skylight running above the bed. Rattan-panelled wardrobes, timber headboards and brass pendant reading lights repeat in each. The ensuites are finished in travertine throughout — carved stone basins on floating plinths, brass tapware, mirrored walls, a row of slender brass pendants along each mirror, and walk-in rain showers behind mosaic tiling and frosted glass.

Villa Aura suits two couples or a family of four who want the Bukit’s beaches and cafes within a short ride and a quiet house to return to. Book it for the pool running the length of the pavilion and the temple roof rising above the garden wall.