In our new series, Design Narratives, we step inside the lives of the creatives shaping Bali — not just through what they build, but through how they see the world.
In the second episode, we meet Alejandra Cisneros — architect, artist, and Bali resident of over 20 years. Her work doesn’t begin with a blank canvas, but with something already alive.
Old timber.
Weathered structures.
Stories waiting to be seen again.
Alejandra has dedicated her practice to reimagining traditional joglos and limasans — carefully dismantling, cataloguing, and reconstructing them into entirely new homes. Each piece is handled with intention. Each structure, a quiet collaboration between past and present.
But her work is not just architectural — it’s deeply personal.
Raised between worlds, with an Argentinian mother and a complex family history tied to her Cuban father, Alejandra’s life has moved between visibility and invisibility, presence and absence. That tension — between what is seen and what is hidden — continues to shape both her perspective and her process.
Bali, for her, was not a plan — it was a feeling. She knew as soon as she arrived. A place that honoured simplicity. A place that, alm
