Pablo Luna Studio Builds a Petung Bamboo Lotus Shala Above a Riverside Slope in Ubud

Wellness architecture in Bali has a lotus problem. The flower appears on signage, spa menus and carved panels across the island, usually as a symbol applied after the building is done. Lotus Shala, a 125 m² pavilion for yoga, meditation and workshops by Ubud-based Pablo Luna Studio, takes the same well-worn motif and does something more useful with it. It makes the motif carry the load. Each petal of the roof is its own petung bamboo structural bay, built from arched ribs and a woven gridshell of split bamboo. The petal is the construction, not a skin over it.

The pavilion sits on a steep, planted slope beside a river within the Solana retreat grounds. It rests on an elevated deck that barely touches the terrain, and its perimeter is fully open to forest, light and air. Development began in 2021, and the broad lotus silhouette held steady through five years of work. That consistency is the real story here. A studio of designers, architects and craftspeople, which also served as its own structural and civil engineer, kept one figurative idea intact and turned it into a working bamboo structure. We think that matters more than the symbolism.

A Roof That Is Its Own Structure

From above, the scalloped roof reads as a bloom set into dense jungle, and the pale ribs make each lobe legible. The drone shot is the obvious selling image. The underside tells you more. Arched petung ribs spring outward, and the woven lattice between them stiffens each bay into a shallow shell. At the corners you can see the lashed poles and slat panels plainly. Nothing is boxed in or plastered over.

The studio frames the project as an early exercise in biomimicry, and we would push back gently on the term. The roof does not mimic how a lotus works. It borrows how a lotus looks. What redeems the borrowing is that the petal geometry suits bamboo well. Curved, repeated, self-bracing bays let split culms do what they are good at: bending under tension while the gridshell spreads the load.

Bundled Columns and the Logic of the Cluster

A single culm of petung is strong but not strong enough to carry a long-span roof alone. The answer here is the bundle. Clustered poles rise from the deck edge, and some are wrapped with carved collars before they branch into the roof arches. Where they meet overhead, lashed purlins and woven panels gather into joints you can read from the floor.

This is where the craft shows most clearly. Bundling allows wide spans and few supports, which keeps the practice floor clear for mats and bodies. The slanted, splayed columns also give the room a sense of movement. They behave less like posts and more like stems, and here the botanical metaphor actually works at the scale of the user.

An Edge Left Open to the Valley

There are no walls on the perimeter, only angled columns and a rope railing between the deck and the hillside. The forest comes right up to the building's edge. From certain spots, the deep eaves frame a distant waterfall through the morning haze. This is a pavilion that hands its views to the landscape rather than composing them into windows.

The rope railing is a small but telling choice. A timber or steel balustrade would have drawn a hard line around the room. Rope keeps the enclosure soft and nearly transparent, which suits a space meant for looking outward as much as inward.

Light, Air and the Practice Floor

Low morning sun cuts under the roof and stripes the timber floor with column shadows. Above, the woven bamboo ceiling filters daylight into something softer and more even. Air moves freely through the open sides, so the pavilion relies on climate-responsive basics, cross-ventilation, shade and a raised floor, rather than on mechanical systems. The studio has not published orientation or shading specifics. Still, the photographs make a convincing case that the room stays usable in Ubud's humidity.

For a yoga shala, the floor is the program. Keeping it uninterrupted, warm underfoot and washed by changing light is the core of the brief, and the structure serves that aim without competing with it.

Plans and Drawings

The roof plan shows the system most clearly. Overlapping petal-shaped bays fan out from the center, each one a structural unit. Beneath it, the floor plan is a kidney-shaped platform with a curved notch, scattered with mats. The plan is a single open room, without a corridor or partition.

The section and elevations show the deck perched on the slope, slender bamboo columns under a lobed roof, and figures in yoga poses among trees and birds. The illustrative style leans toward storybook, but the drawings are honest about the main point: a light frame lifted off steep ground.

Why This Project Matters

Bamboo construction in Bali often falls into one of two modes: expressive, sculptural spectacle, or modest vernacular shelter. Lotus Shala sits between them. Its form is unapologetically figurative, yet every curve can be traced to a rib, a bundle or a lashing. For practitioners working with natural materials, the lesson is that a symbolic idea earns its place when it becomes the load path.

The project is also a reminder of what small scale allows. At 125 m², a studio that designs, engineers and builds in-house can test a structural vocabulary at full size and refine it over years. We would rather see that kind of patient prototyping than another oversized resort pavilion. If Pablo Luna Studio carries this petal system into larger work, Lotus Shala will have been the right place to start.

Lotus Shala Wellness Facility by Pablo Luna Studio. Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. Area: 125 m². Year: 2026. Photography by Pablo Luna Studio.

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