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GREAT MAN OF THE GARDENS Made Wijaya, the great Australian landscape designer from Bali is making his presence felt in India. Sucheta Potnis looks at his multi-faceted life  In 1973, A 20-YEAR-OLD MICHAEL White, a Bondi boy from Australia, on a year’s sabbatical from architectural studies, jumped off a 35-foot ketch and swam ashore to Bali. Despite the drama of such an arrival, neither the jumper nor the beauteous island was prepared for what followed, a love affair with its architecture, culture, people and way of life, still going strong 21 years later. From the moment he landed there, he wanted to belong to its varied and complex culture. A variety of jobs followed - tourist guide, English teacher, a co-ordinator for film productions, tennis coach, a columnist for the Sunday Bali post, and most importantly, a pall-bearer for the orthodox Hindu Brahmins of South Bali and a dancer at traditional Balinese festivals. Along the way he developed a close relationship with a family of Hindu priests who adopted him, gave him a new name and initiated him in the way of life that defines Hinduism in Bali. Thus was born Made Wijaya.
Made may have been good, even outstanding as a tennis coach and his newspaper column ‘Stranger in Paradise’ very popular among the locals, but he discovered his true passion in 1978 while working on his first big book, The Encyclopedia Of Balinese Architecture, when he met the legendary Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, who had made a name for himself around Asia for his blending of traditional Sri Lankan and South Indian architecture with the modern. Bawa was impressed by what the young man had to say and gave him his first landscape commission, to design the garden of the House he was building in nearby Batu Jimbar. Made recalls his first effort as ‘somewhat clumsy’. But it signaled the arrival of a great landscape architect. A year later came his first big break, when the great Australian architect Peter Muller asked him to design the gardens of the legendary Bali Oberoi. In the rich volcanic soil of Bali, designing gardens and maintaining them is a constant challenge. Taming the jungle, creating order out of tropical abundance is a tough job. In Bali, the landscapes tend to run away from you, run amok. A firm hand is needed to keep the garden looking like an untamed tropical wilderness. Made personally trained an enormous Balinese work-force to work with him calling them his ‘Garden Commandos.’ Together, they have created more than 600 gardens in countries as varied as Singapore, Spain, Morocco, Hawaii, Australia, Mexico and India. Made’s portfolio reads like a dream: The Four Seasons Bali resort, Bali Hyatt, The US Ambassador’s residence in Jakarta, the David Bowie house in Mustique, the Hyatt Regency Surabaya, Amandari Bali, the Taj Wellington Mews Apartment Hotel in Mumbai amongst many others.
Made’s single most significant contribution to landscape architecture has been the re-introduction of distinct Balinese ethos in the gardens he created. Digging up traditional Bali style garden designs, he cleverly re-interpreted them through his designs. His company P.T. Wijaya Tribwana International now runs a whole division that creates garden artifacts, lighting fixture and many other things that go into giving a garden or a home a distinct touch of the oriental romance. Decades of hands-on experience has also resulted in some stunning books on tropical garden design. Reading the lavishly produced Arichitecture of Bali or Tropical Garden Design or At Home In Bali is overdosing on fabulous gardens and interior. If things go right India is all set to see a bit more of Made Wijaya, beyond his popular books, in the coming months and years. Almost seven years ago, he was asked to revamp the sprawling but unimaginatively designed gardens of the Leela Palace in Goa. The Leela needed a sea change in a hurry for their collaboration with Four Seasons. After many months of back breaking work, Made transformed the gardens into a stunning picture of tropical beauty. The Four Seasons/Leela marriage broke up before it was solemnized but Made’s gardens are still stunning. Lagoons, water bodies, secluded corners, tight Heliconia jungles and palm avenues have come together in these gardens of exhilarating tranquility.
Made was recently involved in building the Balinese style house at Alibag, outside Mumbai, for young industrialist Gautam Singhania, working alongside architect Nozer Wadia. Amongst the things to see here is the lagoon shaped pool. In addition, he is now working with the Taj group on a number of projects across the country: a resort in Kovalam, revamping the Lake Palace in Udaipur gardens, redoing the gardens of the Taj Holiday Village in Goa, designing the gardens of the newly-opened Wellington Mews Apartment Hotel, the gardens at the Taj West End in Bangalore, as also The Park in Delhi. He has also done private houses like Bharat Bajoria’s in Calcutta and the Paul House in Delhi. Even while creating gardens and houses around the world, and writing critically acclaimed books, made still has enough spill-over energy to be a serious photographer, a popular columnist and a magazine publisher. His monthly column, ‘Stranger in Paradise’ in the Sunday Bali Post is a grand display of the fact that this creator of ethereal landscapes is equally inventive when it comes to exposing some prize hypocrites with his cheeky, irreverent and high octane writing. For instance, on his website, he has given Captain Nair of the Leela, an ‘award’ for’ a lifetime of ripping of designers in Asia…” His columns have been collected into a book and can also be read on the website www.strangerinparadise.com. Like so many newcomers to an old island, Made routinely takes on the expats who come to Bali and stay on and profess to ‘love’ it, for the wrong reasons. Often they have no appreciation, let alone respect, for Balinese culture. The second group on his hate list are those who buy into the perception that Bali is only a cheap tourist destination, worth visiting only for cheap booze, cheap massages and cheap food. I met Made Wijaya in action at the Taj Holiday Village. He is in full swing, walking around in the mid day sun, a straw hat flapping in the brisk wind, gesturing animatedly, his face as mobile as his hands, the Ozzie accent overlaid by (what I imagine) to be a Bali one. He is followed by one of his Garden Commandos, with whom he consults briefly, and by architect Dean D’Cruz, who is trying to keep up with the sheer energy of Made. He is already on first-name basis with much of the staff, including the stewards and the gardeners. Walking back to the car park, I watch the gardens being slowly coaxed into the shapes that Made can see his mind. Weeks of research, scores of emails and finally a hurried lunch later, I am no wiser about the person that has created so much beauty along with so much controversy. ‘A man people love to hate’ is one of the descriptions on hears about him. “I am just a garden artist, a retired dancer, a writer, photographer and an architect,” he tells me describing himself. |
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Casually, he plonks a copy of Poleng in front of me saying, “Here, this is for you.” This is the magazine he started about life in Bali. Colorful and vivid it talks about among other things his many friends, from lowly gardeners to the large and powerful Royal family, as well as photographers and stars who patronize him. Made has made friends with many—just as he has made plenty of enemies.