The green domes of power

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday November 18, 2007

As part of the generation who shared the euphoria of 1998’s student occupation of the DPR/MPR building at Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto, I found there is an awkward feeling when I saw the design of the gate of our parliament building.

The new gate replaced the old design which has been fixed for so many times after going through numerous rough protest rallies. The new design looks very much stronger as a result of the additional vertical structure to sustain lateral forces, in other words, any attempt to shove it down. It looks daunting enough to keep unwanted parties from entering the complex.

The things that draw my attention from the new gate are the mini green domes on top of the pillars. They were painted mimicking the main dome of the DPR/MPR building. The designer of the gate would probably intend to contextualize the new gate with the main building.

However, such gesture could lead to completely different interpretation. Although the gates are meant to keep unwanted people out of the complex, they also meant to maintain the huge gap between it and the main building. Those mini domes could be interpreted literally as the direct representation of the DPR/MPR council where it reinforces the idea that the public, in the event of a rally, do not have to enter the main building. They can just convey their message towards the gate, which I am assuming that is not the initial intention.

On the contrary, the Reichstag, the parliament building in Berlin, Germany, offers completely different gesticulation. The building opens its doors for public visitation. Renovated in 199x by Foster and Partners, a London based internationally recognized architecture firm, the Reichstag allows the public to witness how the parliament is performing their duties.

The interior circulation flow of the building was design to accommodate separate public viewing without conflicting with the daily activities of the parliament members. The public visitors can even observe the council’s meeting sessions from the above. They could also occupies the roof and enjoy Berlin’s scenery.

The Reichstag is equipped with a very complex reflective mirror system within its transparent dome. The mirror system is computerized and programmed to follow the sun angle and reflect sunlight to indirectly illuminate the main meeting hall. This system minimizes the need for artificial lighting and reduces the energy load. This complex system is also available for public viewing and becomes one of the attractions for visitors.

In essence, the Reichstag shows how it embraces two fundamental aspects in the current issues, democracy and saving the environment. In my opinion, The DPR/MPR building should learn from the Reichstag and constantly contextualize its role in the democracy. Securing the DPR/MPR building is not about keeping the commoners from disturbing the parliament members, but it is about having those two parties coexist under one roof. Parliament building should represents how idealism is applied in our daily lives as the citizen of this beloved country.

Captions:

Image 01 The mini domes on top of the gate of the DPR/MPR building

Image 02 Visitors can observe the parliament meeting sessions in the Reichstag.

Image 03 The complex mirror system can react to the sun movement and indirectly illuminate the interior.

All images are by Zenin Adrian

The luxurious geometry of 'scrapers

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday November 11, 2007

In the last few decades, architects have been liberated from the constraints of the traditional drawing board and flat-plane geometry.

Younger generations of architects have more access to the Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs and have been using it to its full extent generating more geometrically complex design.

Currently, the global trend of skyscraper design has shifted from a straight extrusion of primitive shape to a more complex three dimensional shape. Concurrent with the advancement of CAD software, a complex building shape is more feasible to realize.

However, such vast advancement in complex building form design has to be confronted with the reality of fabrication. All curvy shapes have to be fabricated from available flat building materials in the market. In order to achieve a smooth curved surface, it has to be segmented and the covering panels have to be cut into specific sizes.

Surfaces with one-directional curving can be constructed out of the same panel size with little variations. Other types of more complex curved surfaces, such as a bi-directional curving surface, requires a higher degree of variations for the paneling sizes.

Such variations also mean more material waste and higher cost. That is why a complex building shape is usually applied on high budget construction such as art museums, galleries or privately owned office towers and considered as luxurious geometry.

Interestingly, the new building for the Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI), Ministry of National Education, located at Jl. Pintu Satu Senayan, Jakarta, has demonstrated that such extravagance can be applied to a government office building. Designed by Atelier 6, a Jakarta based architecture firm, the building's unique facade consists of several curving surfaces, which require fine variations for the cladding panels or glasses.

In my opinion, this matter raised an important issue of justifying such luxury. I could not think any functional justifications of the curved facade other than symbolic ones.

Symbolic form in architecture design was a common practice during the New Order era, for example Keong Emas Theater at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or the phallic tower for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism building at Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat.

On the other hand, Menara Satrio, a new office tower in Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio has applied a simple strategy in generating the effect of a curving skyscraper.

The recently completed office building, designed by Arquitectonica, a US based architecture design firm, manipulated the rectangular shape simply by chamfering each of the four corners.

The design strategy created a simpler geometry than that of the DIKTI building and minimizes the variations for the fabrication of the glass panels.

I must commend Menara Satrio for smartly and efficiently revisiting the rectangular skyscraper design. Menara Satrio has shown that luxury and elegance can be achieved with a simpler geometry -- and without breaking the bank. The extravagant geometry of symbolism-driven architecture as shown by the DIKTI building does not reflect functionality and contradicts good governance. The government should have expressed more modesty and practicality in constructing their office buildings.

Caption 1: The DIKTI building as viewed from Jl. Sudirman. Its unique structure consists of several curving surfaces

Caption 2: Menara Satrio manipulated the rectangular shape simply by chamfering each of the four corners

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Sculptural Exhibition Space Promotes Local Designers

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday November 4, 2007

In the last few years, the discourse of exporting our intellectual commodities has been emerging within the design community. Globalization provided a whole new playground for local designers where global competition is inevitable.

At this moment, the Indonesian creative industry is still struggling for international recognition -- specifically in architecture design, where traditional style is still dominating the international perspective on Indonesian design. To some contemporary architect, this view represents inferiority of Indonesian creative industry and provides weak ground for local designers to compete globally.

However, the Indonesian Trade Show which was held from October 23rd to October 27th, 2007 at the Jakarta Fairground in Kemayoran provide a whole different approach to presenting Indonesian creative products, as well as exhibition design to the public. The trade show was packaged in an unconventional manner.

Traditionally, in a lot of commercial exhibitions in Indonesia, every exhibition booth competes to be distinct by showing unique and attractive design. Each booth is confined in a fixed module and designed specifically to sell each products. In a whole, the entire exhibition would look more like a circus than a market place.

Andra Matin took a whole new design approach. Recognized as one of the 101 of the world's most exciting new architects by the Wallpaper* magazine, Andra Matin gave a much richer spatial experience to the whole show, comparable to a modern art museum. The exhibition took place in the recently built D2 hall at the Jakarta Fairground complex.

By occupying a very large, hangar-like space, Andra had the opportunity of creating a three-story interior structure. He maintains the quality of the great hall by not totally enclosing it with the additional floor spaces. The created space is more sculptural than commercial.

Entering the exhibition space, he guided the visitor to ascend through a long and tapered stepped corridor to reach the top floor as the beginning of the whole experience. From that point, the visitor would gradually descend through the exhibition.

Circulation flow is designed not only to allow visitor to view the exhibition in a continuous way but also reveal the space beneath, so the visitors would get a glimpse of the overall show while experiencing the show.

The predominantly black interior with black fabric covering the hall's interior side, provided a more focused environment for the trade products. Each product is exhibited without further set up, some of them even just placed their products on the floor. Personally, each item appeared more like an art object than a commercial product.

I believe in order to encourage our local creative commodities, we need a more permanent exhibition space similar to the trade show exhibition space or even like the Cooper Hewitt's National Design Museum in New York, USA.

Andra Matin's skillful space manipulation shows us that the creative industry needs to receive higher appreciation. In fact, all the products exhibited in the show have already received international appreciation, but are still lacking in local recognition -- an interesting phenomena that challenges our foreign brand oriented society.

Caption 1: he visitors ascend through a long and tapered stepped corridor to reach the top floor as the beginning of the whole experience.

Caption 2:Circulation flow is designed not only to allow visitor to view the exhibition in a continuous flow but also reveal the space beneath.

Caption 3: The predominantly black interior provides a more focused environment for the trade products

Caption 4: Each product appears more like an art object than a commercial product.

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Providing unbiased setting for haute cuisine

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday October 28, 2007

One recurring dilemma my wife and I have to cope with every time we want to have a dining experience is how we decide between good food and good place. Most of the time those two things do not go together. We can have fantastic food in a worst place on earth or dine in a fabulous place with mediocre cuisine.

Perhaps the challenge for Anouska Hempel, an internationally renowned London based interior designer, in designing the SHY restaurant is to provide an astonishing interior without competing with the food. Rather than overly decorated the restaurant, her personal approach is more mental than physical. She focuses in engaging three main issues: scale, enclosure and consistency.

Starting from the entrance corridor, our sense of scale is being manipulated here. As we enter the main dining area through the narrow corridor, we will slightly ascend through a series of wide steps, and descend as we enter the dining areas. This technique gives a compression in space and provides a simply elegant introduction for the dining areas. So it will feel dramatically higher.

The SHY’s dining area is divided into four different parts: one large dining space that can be sub divided and enclosed into smaller private dining, two private areas and one relaxed lounge area.

Hempel creates the sense of privacy of each division simply through extensive use of the vertical screen. Privacy is achieved by exploiting the effect created by the physical property of the vertical screen, where it becomes transparent when viewed perpendicularly and opaque when viewed sideways or on an angle relative to the screen surface.

This effect is similar to an optical illusion called the moiré phenomenon. An illusion created by superimposing two different sets of parallel lines differing in relative size, angle or spacing.

Its application is considered as the oldest trick in the book and has been used by designers as a simple yet effective tool to create physical separation while maintaining limited visual connection.

According to Karen Kwek, SHY’s communication officer, the main design direction is not to overshadow the food’s presentation. To that end, Hempel maintains the applied materials by limiting color palette into three colors: black, white and celadon (grayish light green).

I am deeply convinced that the predominantly black interiors, with different finishes and effects for each elements such as the floorings, seating, tables and the screens, has successfully create an unbiased setting for any activities or events at SHY. The limited color palette has allowed Hempel to focus and exploit the physical quality of each element.

Overall, the key ingredient to Hempel’s sophisticated interior is through proper understanding of characteristic of the materials and the effect it has created. The food can be self represented without distraction from other interior elements and people can be their selves in a tranquil atmosphere.

Captions:

Picture 01 The raised corridor enhanced the sense of different scale.

Picture 02 Extensive use of the screen creates division while maintaining visual connection.

Picture 03 Main dining space is flexible to be sub divided or re arranged for different events.

Picture 04 The food can be self represented without distraction from other interior elements and people can be their selves in a tranquil atmosphere.

All images are courtesy of SHY

The Papilion: Effortless elegance through transparency

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday October 21, 2007

Transparency has been an old obsession for numerous architects throughout the course of modern architecture. Since the beginning of the massive application of glass to construction, people have seemed to be mystified by its transparent quality and incredible strength.

One phenomenon which results from the physical property of a glass surface is how it reacts to light. If you view a glass structure from the outside, it is opaque and highly reflective when it is exposed to daylight.

At night, when it is lit from the inside, it becomes totally transparent. And this phenomenon has been the object of exploration of many architects.

However, such transparency comes with additional unwanted feature. When sunlight hits a glass surface, it only reflects the light ray not the heat ray. The process produces a heat build-up inside which requires a much greater effort to cool the interior of the building.

However, this problem has been resolved by the Papilion building, located on Jl. Kemang Raya, Jakarta. Designed by D-Associates, a Jakarta based architecture design office, it is a low-rise four-story simple, yet sophisticated structure, home to high-end boutiques and restaurants.

The facade utilizes a double layer of glass which creates air space between the glass layers. This acts as a thermal barrier, keeping the heat build-up contained in this relatively narrow space.

The heat generates a pressure difference between the top and bottom of the air space resulting in buoyancy force -- or upward force -- popularly known as the stack effect, where the hot air will rise and escape through the aluminum louver at the top of the glass façade beneath the canopy. (Picture 01)

This strategy significantly helps reduce the energy load required to cool the building's interior, while maintaining its transparent quality.

According to the principal architect, Gregorius Supi Yolodi, transparency was the main design strategy utilized to reduce the bulkiness of the building. The other design tool is the large canopy above the glass fa‡ade which has two functions: to shade the glass and to virtually reduce the overall height of the building.

I admire the Papilion for its effortless elegance. Contradictory to other significant commercial buildings along Jl. Kemang Raya, the Papilion blends with its surroundings through its reflective fa‡ade. The canopy works well in scaling down the building to friendlier size.

The Papilion also engages the public domain by opening up the first floor to pedestrians. Wheelchair access is provided elegantly next to the main entrance -- a rare find in Jakarta.

However, good intentions cannot be entirely welcomed by city officials. Yolodi said that the city rejects his proposal to improve the pedestrian pathway on the side street.

Overall, the Papilion shows that, with a little creative engineering, transparent glass buildings can indeed exist in this city's hot climate.

Our fascination with transparency can be fulfilled with thoughtful design and elegance can be achieved through understanding the environment.

All images are courtesy of D-Associates

The blank façades of the Ritz Carlton diminish the hotel image

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday October 7, 2007

The Ritz Carlton Hotel and Apartment Complex at Mega Kuningan was completed in 2005. In a relatively small roundabout, the Ritz Carlton is the first part of several stages of future development of a mix-used complex for retail, commercial and office towers. The hotel was built on a circular shape lot, in the center of the Mega Kuningan complex, a spot I assumed was reserved for green area.

Located in front of the JW Marriott Hotel, the new complex consists of two skinny 48 floors sleek glass towers with a gothic style base building which serve as the lobby and main reception of the main tower. When you drive into the hotel, after going through the security checkpoint, you will have to drive up the ramp to get to the hotel lobby at the rear side of the building. At this point, you will notice a large blank wall on the side of the building.

Furthermore, another blank wall is to be found on the other side of the hotel. Both of these blank facades are easily visible if you go along the circular road. The blank facades appear to be too contrasting with the heavily decorated front and rear face of the hotel. I am assuming that these blank walls will be demolished to connect with the future extension.

However, two years has passed by and having to stare at these large empty walls since the completion of the hotel is not an attractive experience. Personally, the blank facades are damaging the overall image of the hotel and considered as the worst façade design in the city.

Imagine that the hotel is like a left over piece of a layered cake on an almost empty plate waiting to be taken away. Being a left over is already bad enough for the layered cake, but the sliced side of the layered cake is more attractive than the hotel’s blank wall. Having blank facades on the side is equivalent to typical manner in residential design in Jakarta, where enclosing the side and rear façade is a necessity for privacy and security reasons.

Ritz Carlton is not as introvert as a private house. It is situated in a public domain where all facades, especially at the lower level, are engaging the public realm. The blank facades are more suitable for other types of building that requires less natural light such as parking garage, storage or even a grade B shopping mall.

These blank facades also contradict with its classical style where ornamentation always wraps around the building. These walls made the building appear like a decorated shed, where the ornamentation is merely a decorative illusion to conceal the interior, the kind that you always find in a cowboy movie.

Designed by Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates (SRSAA), an international architecture firm based in Atlanta, USA, the blank facades suggest ignorance and a lack of effort in blending with the urban context and public domain. They also diminish the elegance of one of the prestigious hotel in the city.

Caption for the two images:

“The two blank facades of the Ritz Carlton Hotel + Apartment”

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Nikko Hotel: A subtle presence next to the Hotel Indonesia roundabout

Was published in Jakarta Post on September 30, 2007

The Hotel Indonesia roundabout has been serving as Jakarta’s public gathering space, a political space where any activities such as demonstrations, political party gatherings or entertainment will be recognized and covered by national and even international media. Interestingly, the new extension of the Nikko Hotel on Jl. MH Thamrin, formerly known as President Hotel, did not receive much vibes.

Not too many people recognized that the former President Hotel and Wisma Nusantara has been transformed to a fresh appearance. The new expansion and renovation project was designed by Kenzo Tange Associates, an internationally renowned modernist Japanese architecture design office. The office is headed by Kenzo Tange who is a laureate of the Pritzker Prize, an academy award for architects.

Originally built in 1970s, the expansion and renovation project was completed in 2003. The new expansion on the north side is connected with the old President Hotel with a long double height lobby space. Enclosed with glass façade, the transparent new lobby appears to have an intimate and subtle relationship with the Hotel Indonesia roundabout and Jl. MH Thamrin.

Preserving an old building is never an easy task. Although the old President Hotel was not as old as other colonial buildings, the renovation preserved the original image of this historical building. It did not transform President Hotel into something else. The new roof seamlessly connects all three buildings and simply generated a single image for all of them.

The transparent glazing produces strong effect of connection of the lobby space to the vibe of the Hotel Indonesia roundabout. A quality that is extra ordinary and particular to the new expansion while other buildings in the vicinity do not have similar impression in their public domain.

Responding to the hot climate of Jakarta, the west facing glass façade is recessed behind a row of tubular columns and large overhang (Picture 01). This overhang shades the glazing from the sun ray, a similar strategy which is applied at the old President Hotel and the new building’s façade where all windows of the hotel units are shaded with shading devices (Picture 02).

One thing that I highly admired about this building is how the new lobby is well proportioned and does not feel extravagant. That impression was generated by a considerably low ceiling compared to other exclusive hotels in Jakarta. The entrance door is low enough to give a compressing experience before entering an elongated grandeur lobby. This is how Japanese sense of scale plays tricks in manipulating the experience without utilizing large scale spaces.

Interestingly, the new expansion on the north side was designed with respect to the old building. The design accommodates the President hotel’s old style which result in making the new building does not look too modern and the old one does not look outdated. The architects demonstrate their well understanding of the character of the old building. Consequently, the overall hotel complex gave the timeless expression which is an intricate task for every architect.

The new image of the hotel appears modest in contrast with the ongoing enormous renovation project of Hotel Indonesia on the other side of the roundabout. The simple yet sophisticated addition has transformed the old building into an elegant new hotel.

Captions:

Picture 01 The glass façade with tubular columns of the new lobby

Picture 02 The new lobby connects the new expansion with the former President Hotel

Picture 03 The Nikko Hotel viewed from the Hotel Indonesia roundabout

Picture 04 The glass façade connects all three buildings seamlessly

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Greening roofs: A simple way to reduce global warming

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday, September 23, 2007

One of the reasons why the people of Jakarta moved out to the suburbs during the 1990s real estate boom was the need for more green space.

Back then, the general assumption was a house would not be complete without the grass next to it.

Such an ideal has lost its priority. Jakarta becomes more and more congested each year and people spend more time trapped in traffic.

Re-urbanization in the past few years has gained its momentum concurrent with the erection of new apartment buildings in the heart of Jakarta.

The price of land has risen drastically and the city's density is higher than ever before. Nowadays, people are more willing to live in much smaller lots. However, this paradigm shift has not been followed by a small-living mentality, which means living more efficiently and optimizing space usage.

People tend to maximize their homes within the lots and without a choice, leaving no space for greenery.

Many homes are still built in a traditional manner, as if Jakarta had more green landscape to spare, with the exception of one particular house on Jl. Tangkuban Perahu, Guntur, South Jakarta.

The house offers more green space than any other conventional urban home. It does not utilize a traditional pitched-roof design; rather it has specifically been designed to have a green roof.

Designed by Adi Purnomo, a Jakarta-based contemporary architect known for his environmentally conscious approach, the house has changed the perception of how houses in urban settings should be designed.

*****

A green roof does not simply refer to color of the roof. It is a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil, or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane.

Green roofs gained popularity in North America in the last few years, although they are not as common as in Europe. Developed in Germany in the 1960s, green roofs provide a lot of benefits, especially to improve the quality of life in Jakarta.

One benefit is that a green roof helps to reduce the urban heat island effect, where a certain area in an urban setting is significantly warmer than its surroundings.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains that when vegetation is replaced by asphalt and concrete for roads, buildings and other structures necessary to accommodate a growing population, these surfaces absorb the sun's heat, causing surface temperatures and overall ambient temperatures to rise.

Another benefit of green roofs is a physical phenomenon known as evaporative cooling. The rainwater retained by green roofs generates the water evaporation process within the roof's layer. This process cools the roof and significantly contributes to lessen the energy used in air conditioning.

*****

The scarcity of green space in Jakarta should be compensated for in our own personal space.

The house on Jl. Tangkuban Perahu does not merely convert the traditional flat roof into a green roof, but also proposes a new approach for an urban house garden.

The green roof on this house serves as stacked landscape and changes the perception of a multistory home as each room in the house has the luxury of facing at least some greenery.

However, the application of a green roof does not come without challenges. Technically, green roofs require more structural consideration than conventional roofs to accommodate the extra weight from the amount of soil and water they retain. The roof has to be deep enough to allow vegetation to grow depending on the type of plants it uses.

The other hindrance is more cultural than physical. In some beliefs, the idea of living underneath the soil is viewed as being buried under the ground, as in a graveyard; a feature that is undesirable for a house.

Ultimately, having a green roof on top of your house is one of many things we can do to upgrade our living quality in Jakarta and reduce global warming.

Similar to increasingly popular hybrid cars, green roofs should be viewed as next-generation luxury features, rather than Italian marble or classical columns.

All images are courtesy of Adi Purnomo

The Glass House at Taman Menteng: A Failure in Understanding the Climate

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday September 16, 2007

In the past, the only reason that drives me to go to the Jl. HOS Cokroaminoto, specifically the stretch where the Hotel Formule-1 is located, is the famous “nasi gila”. An oily fried rice dish mixed with vegetable and meat that was sold by the street food vendors along that stretch. Other than that, I always tried to avoid it because the traffic was always heavily congested with the disorganized street parking.

Up until late April 2007, along with the opening of the new park called “Taman Menteng” to the public, the traffic in that stretch was decongested. It was a result of simultaneous effort of strictly enforced parking restrictions, the construction of new public parking building, and relocation of the street food vendors.

For me, the new park itself is just a neat place to be. Its welcoming plaza made it publicly accessible, especially from the intersection of Jl. HOS Cokroaminoto and Jl. Prof. Moch. Yamin. From that end, we can explore the whole park through a network of walkway strips.

Taman Menteng is considered as Jakarta’s prototype model of a multi-function park, a new concept for revenue generating facilities where traditional parks were considered too costly to maintain. It is a new concept for providing more public parks to Jakarta. Inside it, you can find several main features of the park, the futsal, basket ball court, a tiny children’s playground and two glass houses.

At first, I thought the glass houses were designed for botanical related purposes, which can be commonly found in a park or garden. It surprised me when I saw a bunch of air conditioning’s outdoor units lying next to the structures. The glass houses turned out to be built to accommodate social events such as exhibitions, weddings, seminars and plant shows.

I could understand the need to provide a transparent structure that could blend with the landscape. But such transparency wasn’t followed with a thoughtful design.

At least 9 air conditioning units were installed inside each of the 100 square meter glass house. The installations appear unplanned, because they were crudely attached to the structural steel pipe inside the glass house (Picture 2).

The interiors should be extremely hot especially in the sunny day so they need to have abundance use of them. These transparent structures were not designed for the hot climate of Jakarta. Both of them do not even have ventilation at the roof for the hot air to escape, an essentially important feature for a glass house design.

The glass houses are constructed with steel pipe structure to form the pitched roof shape. Some of the pipes extended out of the glass façade, without touching the ground (picture 3). These small decorative details added up the glass house’s heat problem. Those extensions generate an effect called “thermal bridging”, a condition when an exposed structure becomes a thermal conductor and allows heat to flow through the structure. Those decorative steel pipes bring more heat to the interior and torment the air conditioning units.

I never knew that hideous air conditioning units have become decorative elements. The designer of this structure should have anticipated the heat problem and designed a more integrated system or at least cover them with the plants.

In my opinion, the glass house represents a lack of understanding for our own climate. Thermal comfort should have been an indispensable principle in good building design.

Overall, Taman Menteng is still a pleasant addition to Jakarta’s urban experience and gives a refreshing approach for providing more green spaces in Jakarta. I am sure there will be more conversions of existing parks into this prototype model. Nevertheless, I hope the park officials will put extra attention in providing good facilities with better design.

Captions:

Picture 1 The two glass houses at Taman Menteng from the intersection of Jl. HOS Cokroaminoto and Jl. Prof. Moch. Yamin

Picture 2 The protruding steel tubes and the air conditioning units

Picture 3 The crudely attached indoor air conditioning unit.

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Green: The underappreciated design approach

Was published in the Jakarta Post – Sunday, August 26, 2007

Since Al Gore revealed the "inconvenient truth" of global warming, I have seen more enthusiasm and awareness on saving the environment than ever before.

I guess it takes a Hollywood movie to remind us all of this global threat to the existence of mankind. People seem to talk more and more about how we can play our part in saving the environment.

An environment-friendly way of life, popularly known as green living, is not associated with hippies anymore and has inspired changes in every aspect of life.

In the building construction industry, the reemergence of green concept building design has become widespread, since buildings account for 40 percent of global energy consumption.

Energy-efficient design here has regained its relevance after it was virtually abandoned from the early-1980s through the late-90s, coinciding with Indonesia's economic prosperity, partly due to cheap energy.

During that period, most high-rise buildings in Jakarta were based on the assumption that energy would be consumed lavishly. Few applied energy conservation principles.

One was Wisma Dharmala Sakti on Jl. Sudirman. Completed in 1987, the building applied many energy-efficient design principles. Although many people underappreciated this extraordinary building, in my opinion, the building's design makes it one of the "greenest" buildings in Jakarta.

*****

The architect, the late Paul Rudolph, designed the building by utilizing a series of traditional pitched roof forms in order to provide sun shading for each window.

The overall image of the stacked pitched roofs creates the impression of a tropical skyscraper. Each pitched roof functions as a shading device that reduces a significant amount of solar heat that would otherwise enter the interior space.

The building management says this strategy has conserved energy in air conditioning by up to 30 percent in comparison with conventional window design without any shading device.

Regardless of the extra effort required for cleaning the windows and the sloping roofs (since they could not be accessed from a conventional, suspended maintenance cradle), the architect exploited the roofs for growing ivy on the lower part of the building.

The ivy quite literary turned Wisma Dharmala Sakti into the greenest high-rise building in Jakarta.

Green design is not just about greening a building with plants; besides, energy efficiency only plays a small part in it.

There are a lot of other requirements to fulfill before a building deserves the label "green".

Waste management, rainwater harvesting and the utilization of environment-friendly building materials are among these.

Surprisingly, Wisma Dharmala Sakti adds something else to Jakarta's urban experience.

At ground level, the architect designed an inner courtyard for the lower floor spaces to which to orient (photo 2). The ivy turns the courtyard into an oasis in the middle of Jakarta's concrete jungle.

The courtyard plays an important part in cooling some part of the building by encouraging the "stack effect". This is the movement of air that occurs due to differences in air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences.

The effect provides natural ventilation both inside and outside the building. The courtyard also provides indirect natural light for the interior spaces.

Few people are aware of this courtyard, even though it can be accessed directly without entering the lobby. Even I could not find until my third visit to the building.

As I descended to the courtyard, it felt as though I was not in Jakarta anymore. This great space somehow seems alien in Jakarta; it is like a hidden pocket and feels like a luxury that is hard to find in other Jakarta high-rise buildings.

Another great space in this building is the mezzanine on the fourth floor (photo 3). The space is a large terrace connected to the courtyard mentioned below, next to the building's canteen. This large terrace has an incredible view of the surrounding buildings in the area; from here you can really examine how the ivy occupies the sloping roofs underneath the belly of the building.

*****

I must share my admiration for the Wisma Dharmala Sakti's design where great spaces can be generated from simple green design concepts.

Unfortunately, the building is generally underappreciated and more people are in favor of sleek glass curtain walls.

I believe that instead of trying to achieve the tallest building, people should compete more to create the greenest one.

They still assume this sustainable approach is a new paradigm and demand new solutions: We take for granted what is already around us.

Nowadays, it takes celebrities to promote green lifestyles to all of us.

Al Gore is not the only one: Leonardo Di Caprio, a long-time environmentalist, will soon release his documentary film on the environmental crisis.

Brad Pitt staged a green design competition on new housing for Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. Even the notorious Paris Hilton bought a hybrid car.

I sincerely hope being green does not become a temporary fad but a permanent way of life.

All images are by Zenin Adrian

Improving interaction through a pedestrian network

Was published in Jakarta Post on Sunday September 9, 2007

I always thought Grogol, West Jakarta, was not the best place for an educational establishment. Its noisy intersections, lack of tree shading and polluted air hardly constitute an ideal learning environment.

However, the inception of Tarumanegara University's campus building has changed my perception.

The design of the new building was selected through an open design competition carried out in 2005, and was won by a Bandung-based architecture design office, Urbane.

The most distinctive feature in their winning proposal was the strategy for opening up the campus building for much more socially friendly purposes.

Personally, I think this new addition to the campus is one of the most publicly engaging buildings in Jakarta. It has created a more intimate relationship with urban public life.

Both parts of the new complex, a 22-story campus building and an eight-level multistory car park, reserve the ground floor area for a pedestrian network connection and retail functions for the students.

Almost all urban private campuses in Jakarta faces the same problem of managing parking spaces for their students. With most middle-class households in Jakarta owning cars or motorcycles for every member of the family, educational institutions inevitably face parking problems as complex as those of shopping malls.

Usually, this problem is at the bottom of their list in improving educational facilities.

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I must commend Tarumanegara University and the architect for tackling the problem, which I believe demands great motivation, although the provided parking spaces seem inadequate in comparison with the university's large student body.

This strategy transformed the congested old campus where you used to struggle with the cars in the campus into a more lively venue where students can interact and socialize with each other.

It seemed like a small gesture, but the impact seemed larger than the campus itself.

According to its architect, Ridwan Kamil, the separation between new and existing buildings allows the wind to flow through the campus walk.

I must agree with him; the main plaza is surprisingly cool for Grogol. This unique situation provides a good basis for the school's other new feature.

The erection of the new buildings has also been accompanied by the construction of what has been called "campus walk", a large pedestrian strip plaza connecting all the campus buildings, from the Jl. Letjen S. Parman side all the way to the far end of the campus.

The walk has become the main gathering space for students to interact.

The space plays an important role in the knowledge exchange between students in an urban environment. Schools often consist of several high-rise buildings. A multi-high-rise campus dramatically segregates students from one another.

Consequently, the school needs to make an extra effort to provide an environment conducive to collaboration between students.

Urban campuses in North America such as MIT, USC, Harvard and the University of Toronto face a similar problem in how to bring their students together.

Among them, MIT seems to have put in the greatest effort. The school specifically built a huge gymnasium for its students and also promoted collaboration between departments by providing more specific joint facilities, while other schools merely organized social activities.

However, it is still up to the students how they exploit the collaborative environment that has been provided. The social culture in Jakarta is highly complex and segregated.

Students from different social classes and cultures come together at Tarumanegara University. Therefore, the university has a huge task to actively overcome this segregation in by improving interaction between students.

Schools with socially interactive students will be more productive; the development of our education system depends on them.

Tarumanegara University should continue with initiatives like the campus walk while other opportunities for student interaction and collaboration need to be explored.

All images are by Zenin Adrian