Instead of building their famous igloos, Antony Wood decided to make a new structure for the community to appreciate.
Antony Wood, father of the Oak Park igloo family, has brought a piece of Bali to the community on behalf of his wife, Tansri.
In his words, the family has developed a reputation for being the “house with the two architects who do crazy things.” Their reputation was surely set in stone during Halloween of 2020, when the kids of Oak Park wanted to still trick-or-treat despite not being able to go from house to house.
Instead of falling accustomed to Covid restrictions, Tansri Wood did not disappoint. To make the little ones happy, she rigged up a zipline from the front porch to the fence, where the two sent candy down whenever children walked by.
Today, their reputation lives on.
In recent years, the family would come together during January and February to build colorful igloos that caught people’s attention. However, because of warmer winter conditions, Wood decided to bring his and his wife’s long-held idea of building a Balinese shrine to fruition.
Wood and his wife met in Indonesia more than 30 years ago while he was working in Asia on business and while she worked in the office. After a while, the two moved to his birthplace, England, while his soon-to-be-wife worked on her master’s degree there. After working and finishing school, the two decided to get married. They agreed that the best place to tie the knot was Java, where she was born.
During the wedding, his family came together from all around the world to celebrate the couple’s love for each other. In fact, the newlyweds and 30 other friends and family members all honeymooned together in Bali.
The idea to build the shrine, however, came to mind while they were on a family trip two years ago. Wood explained how major buildings in Bali had their own shrines to pay respects and homage to Hindu gods. This observation led to the manifestation of his next project.
The family decided to bring back local materials that would be used to build the shrine.
“We love Bali very much and so maybe 10 years ago after a Bali trip, we brought back with us these Balinese umbrellas and started using them in the garden.” Wood stated.
The bright yellow umbrella, two attendants, the elephant Ganesha statue, and the material on the tree behind the shrine are all straight from Bali.
According to Wood, he broke down his building process into four main steps: the foundation, materials, dry build, and final layout. His first order of business was to build the foundation of the shrine, which is a 9-cubic-foot slab of concrete. Originally, he dug a 12-cubic-foot hole, considering the walls would start to cave in as he dug multiple feet into the ground. And get this… he did all his digging manually. “It almost killed me digging that hole,” he joked.
He then made a cage with metal reinforcement bars before pouring in the cement. The shrine was built to be permanent and the concrete acts as a strong base.
Then Wood made his first mistake. His instinct was to buy normal brick to start his dry building process. However, to his dismay, the regular brick did not look right – it looked too thick and bulky.
He needed to find a much thinner brick and Roman brick ended up being the perfect option. Roman brick permitted Wood to achieve the subtle step look. It is the same brick Frank Lloyd Wright used to build many of his houses in Oak Park.
The next steps consisted of drying all the appropriate materials then backtracking to refine and perfect the aesthetic of the shrine. Despite this solo act – unlike the family igloo activity – Tansri Wood acted as his “aesthetic advisor” during the refining process, her husband said.
Finally, Wood glued the bricks together, along with all the other materials of the shrine, to make the beautiful, culturally significant Balinese shrine. In all, the project took him around five days across a one-month span, costing him around $1,200.
Wood’s Balinese shrine is located on Superior Street in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District of Oak Park.