Streams of Lives

Day and night for the celebration icon.

The concept of celebration

Imagine elements that color the journey of Jayapura through the tunnel of time as various entities. Those are entities that represent individuals, families, social values, culture and traditions, and many other elements, symbolized in the simplest form of all, dots.

The dots are moving, crossing, colliding, and bonding through the passage of time. The dots transform into living dynamic curves, moving even faster, bond ing even closer, then burst into a meaningful gesture, a gesture of celebrating the bonding that has gone through a century and goes even stronger in the future.

Even in symbolic architecture, the core of an object being valued as architecture is the same. Function. Without function, a built object cannot be stated as architecture. It may be a sculpture, may be an art object, but not architecture. Based on this understanding, the Papua landmark has to serve more meaning, more function rather than just an extravagant symbol.
The function chosen for this monumental pride of Jayapura is a museum. A museum, is one typology that best known for its capability to treasure the priceless legacy from the ancient times, from the forefathers to our now generation.
The form itself was taken from an invaluable object of nature, which also a famous “nickname” for Papua. The Black Pearl, and yes we tried to figure out a better name, something less corny, but hey! don’t blame us. Blame Captain Jack Sparrow!
A black pearl, an invaluable object preserved and protected by whole, just as the island Papua regarded by its people.

My finest image of the icon.

The Power of Youth

Masa mudamu tak akan abadi…
Sengat panasnya, kan pasti berlalu..

My old friend sang that verse of a religious song (which was quite famous during our high school years) a couple days ago, just before he got married. It all seems like reminding me that by each day passed, I growing old. 8 years ago, that was my high school years, and now, I am already working, trying to barge my way to an endless rat race of making a living. I am now 24 years old.
The sun is almost set when I write this, another day gone by.
The song above, translated into English means, “Your youth won’t be forever, and the burning heat will eventually fade away…”
And well, though often claim that I still has it, the passion wasn’t as back then. Few weeks ago, on my way to Bandung, I happened to take the train and while I waited for the designated one, I decided to take a look around. And there it was, an edition devoted to cover several (13, to be exact) young architects under 40 who, judging by their appearance in a magazine, they ought to be the best among the rest. And so I bought the magazine, and read it on my way to Bandung.
It was a good magazine, I would say brilliant, that there is a publication willing to give a warm attention toward the youngsters, but somehow I felt like I am being left all alone. The train has left. The train where the next generation of youngsters, the future masters in has moved toward the future, the direction where we will all go. But in a blinding speed, and I am walking.
Suddenly I feel young again. I feel the passion inside of me, wanting to achieve something bigger, better, something that is larger than life. It was then, that I realize while the fire on the tip of the candle still holds, there is still time. There is still time, I kept reminding myself. Soon the time will up…
Few weeks later, after another monotonous week of work, another friend sent a short message, “I felt like I didn’t exist. Let’s work on something great. Let’s challenge the world.”
So true, what he said. We’re young, we’re restless, we’re hungry for success (I AM hungry for fame!), and so, let’s take the challenge head on. The world it is, the world it is, the one we will conquer.

“Old golfers lose. That is not absolute, but a common thing bound to happen” (Paul Arden)

wooden house with vista; an art of seeing

During my one year stay in Osaka, I developed (not that I hadn’t had admired the architecture of Japan beforehand), a sense of admiration toward Japanese architecture, and I mean by its broad definition, from the traditional ones up until its latest contemporaries. There are many aspects to further understood in the Japanese architecture, but among several I was able to counter during my stay and I thought was inspiring is the way the spaces connects, the way one place to another seems to gradually exposed, the way of exploring them felt like a journey, culminating in one extraordinary experience, like the one I had on that afternoon at Shugakuin Rikkyu… It was the feeling of entering, walking through, and experiencing a powerful sequence, masterly developed since the ancient times. At first I thought Ando was the one invented, or at the very least, confirmed the presence of such technique on manipulating spaces, but it was right then that I realized that the technique was intrinsic to the Japanese culture, in their art of building, in their art of seeing things. Beautifully, gradually evoking what lies beneath, slowly bringing the abstracts into physical realms, leaving us, the observant, at a loss of words.
For now, I’ll stop further writing on that subject, as that was “just” an introduction to this house project I did during my work stint at VHS Architect, fingers crossed I’ll be bringing that topic back alive soon.
The program demanded by the client wasn’t much of a trouble, but they specifically wanted that the house should apply wood as the main material, and that it would reflect the sense of being in tropical area, “Imagine Indonesia.”, they said, with several images of tropical resorts already in their mind.
What then makes this project special is that I decide to put my experiencing the sequences, as mentioned above, into practice. Starting from an open air guest area, a long corridor with a significant tree far off the site, applying the concept shakkei (borrowed scenery) of Japanese traditional architecture, and other small vistas dedicated to create an ideal sequence, all the more makes this project was interesting to develop.
I won’t deny that the images of Kengo Kuma’s Great Bamboo Wall and his Hiroshige Ando Museum lingered on my mind when I was developing this project. Those and Japanese traditional architecture are the core influences for the design of this wooden house.

dismantled box house

In the realm of modern architecture, or in a less-thought consuming way of expressing the term, -a minimalism trend- occurred in our currently more global than ever world, designing (seen from my personal point of view), is evolving (as ever) around Platonic forms, around geometrical manipulations.

Boxes, spheres, cones, cylinders, among others, are the main ingredients of those architecture works in line with the influence of modernism. Combined, attached, cropped, chopped, sliced, morphed, warped, deformed, (name all the methods and ways which there are many) to be done to those most elemental forms and you’ll have yourself a new breed of architecture.

Among those forms, I find a box as the one that suits perfectly with the logic of function, structure, and of persona to be developed into a buildable architecture (I believe many share the very same opinion as I do on this subject.) Boxes suit perfectly to modernism dogma presented by Adler-Sullivan (which often misquoted by many as one of Mies’), “Form follows functions.” And by mostly dwelling on this idea, the design for this house developed.

This house is built for a senior couple, so the program is not necessarily difficult despite the limited floor area, having not so many specific areas and rooms to assign in.

The first step in this house design is to cleanly separate the main area, which includes living room, dining room, master bedroom, and on the second floor are an additional guest room, and a multipurpose room, based on the client request for a music room, from its supporting area, such as kitchen, maid area, and wash/dry area.

The form searching started by dropping a huge box right on the middle of the site and the dismantling process begins afterwards. The word “dismantling” came from the very idea that architecture is about creating tension among the elements that built it into one single strong entity occupying one place for some range of time, and to my concern, what is necessary to create the tensions is a careful compositioning of elements, of forms, of solids and voids, of dismantling and rearranging process of those pieces that once was one as a box, into a new form that is visually pleasing, also pleasantly functioning , seen from many perspectives. Here I present some of the images I believe will help to understand the work better.

The project was later postponed due to several technical (or maybe budgeting) reasons from the client.

Oh, yeah, there are two alternatives, the first being so modern and all, and the second one trying to be a little bit tropical. :) Cheers.

about size. is it truly matters?

small is beautiful, but, oh well, the bigger the better.
whose side are you on?

:D

Final Rendition, a Small House

Creating designs from one competition to another is the path I choose to hone my design skills. Although winning is a rare occasion for me, design process is an enjoyable journey to go through.

This one is the design entry for Sayembara Rumah Mungil 2007, an annual competition held by Tabloid Rumah. This year is the third period of competition and the entries keep getting better by the year.

The design of this house basically focuses on how to gain optimum thermal comfort solution while also paying attention to function and aesthetics of the design.

The front façade is facing west, so in order to minimize the negative effect of sun light coming from that direction, the wall treated as a solid plane, with numerous variable small openings, still allowing light to come through. Behind the wall is a bathroom. (One of wacky idea of creating perverted architecture.)

On the side of this house with openings along the wall, it is possible to gain sunlight from this direction. To reduce direct sunlight, a set of sun shadings applied in front of the side facade.

Images explaining the thermal solution for this house design.

On the interior, a void provided at the center of the house, enabling the use of skylight to improve (again) day lighting and allowing the use of natural ventilation inside the house. With strategically located openings and an open plan concept applied in the interior, it is possible to let the house free running, meaning operating without any air conditioning equipments.

Aerial view, also showing skylight at the center of the house.

The program designed to separate public and private areas of a house, with the ground floor is all about getting together with families and friends, living room, kitchen, dining room, are all here in one setting of open plan, and arranged in a way that they surrounds an inner courtyard. The first floor is for private settings, with bedrooms for parents and children put at this level. The second floor contains a small workroom and a library, dedicated for the father, accessed through the main bedroom, with a balcony upfront.

Schematic program of the house.

Ground floor plan.

First floor plan.

Three living stories, a concept of function and program.

A common composition in traditional architecture (kepala, badan, kaki) translated into contemporary form design.

Small openings intruding the front facade, continued into the form of the front gate.

Dead tired for today, see you around...

Within The Box, A Facade Design

The first design I would like to show you is a façade design submitted to a design competition. In this design, I want to highlight how stairs no longer have to be hidden behind walls. Instead, it can be a focal point that attracts people to gather and spend their time in an open space provided on the second floor of this house. The movement of people also becomes a lively display that is attractive, especially when many of the owner’s friends coming to the house and attending a party, right?

The box-like form of this facade meant to display simplicity in the design. Instead making people focus on the house’s form, drawing people’s attention to what is happening inside the space, the void located on the second floor, is the initial idea.

Stairs as focal point in the design.

Within the Box.

For that competition, I submitted two entries, and the second one was simply about playing with forms. What I thought at that time was how to change the simple box design, as I made in the first design, into something less simple, more attractive and more chaotic. The answer I found was to hit the box with a hammer (Wham! Bam!), and, voila, that is the second design. Sometimes being playful is necessary to relieve the stress building up when you’re designing something.

The second design, Wham!, Bam!

On Designing Houses

House design, noted by Kuma and Tsukamoto as a design project that will help architects build their reputation. Designing houses is a moment when young architects standing on a paddock, waiting for their breakthrough into building bigger projects. At least that is how it goes in Japan, and since that has been going on for several decades now; it has become a culture called the paddock culture (Contemporary Japanese Houses 1985-2005, Ma Gallery).

An example of this cultural phenomenon is Tadao Ando. Ando start off his career with small houses spread around Osaka and its surrounding area. One of his early project was Azuma House, which is simple and humble in a way, and hardly noticed as a house designed by a world famous architect, though Ando’s concrete already become a signature in the design of this house.

Azuma House with its surrounding, the house is barely noticed, right?

Minimal composition of boxes creates the house's front facade.
Don't you feel tempted to put your own sketch next to your client's front door?

Ando's infamous signature detail, light and form already appears in this house design.

In Indonesia, before all the hype of competitions of building bigger public facilities as we see recently (Tsunami Museum of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam competition, for instance), house design competitions started the wave of tradition of competitions in Indonesia, at least, that is the way I see it. Recent publications show that houses are remaining the main design objects that bring people’s attention into the world of contemporary architecture in Indonesia.

Why all the hype? One, because houses look good in magazines and publications, and it is so common that public knows how to judge which house is good, which house is “so and so”. Name few popular publications in Indonesia, and see what’s inside their pages.

Two, in building houses there are spaces for the architect’s creativity and improvisation. Sometimes, houses design is a way for an architect to try out a global concept, an ideal idea that zaps through his/her brain or a hypothesis he/she developed through researches. Here are few examples, Eisenman with his House VI, Ando with his small houses design or Adi Purnomo with his ideal of “arsitektur empatis”.

Three, because houses still the number one reason why people use architect’s service. And for this reason also, the paddock culture exists.

With all that mentioned, I guess it is time to show several of houses design I have done during my days learning about architecture. After this commercial break.

Pupamorph, A Bicycle Public Parking Design

Walking next to pupamorph.

Now, after you have seen the bike, it is time to see where you will park your bike when you’re having a travel across town. This entry is about a public bicycle parking design for a Japanese competition I entered when I was spending my time back in Osaka.

The idea was to create a portable public parking, one that easily attached and detached, placed in public places suits to public needs. In addition, the form of this sheltered parking inspired from a cocoon, explicitly shown as the form of its roof. And when the roof folded, the public parking will expose what it hidden under its roof, people’s bikes, just like when a cocoon reveals the beautiful butterflies under. So, better clean up your bikes before parking or people will see how dirty your bike is, right. Here are the images, enjoy!

Initial sketch, front view.

Initial sketch, side view.

Scheme of pupamorph's transformation.

As seen from the street.

As seen from the pedestrian path.

Close-up view on pupamorph.

P.S. This bicycle public parking design called pupamorph.

A Blazing Bike, The Blaze

Today’s entry will be about a bike design I did for a competition a few months ago. The theme of the competition is to develop a bike design that is innovative and suits well for its user as well as helpful on creating unison of human and nature. Well, my individual purpose of creating this bike is well off the theme actually. I personally think that a bike has to be wickedly cool. All functions aside, a bike has to be something that its user proud to have in his or her garage. So, here I present to you, a cool bike for you to feast upon, the blaze. (Well, I have to admit, having watched the Ghost Rider, the main character’s name kind of stuck in my head, Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, with his cool skeletal motor bike.)

Initial sketch of the bike's form.

Small details of the blaze.

Size and measurements of the bike.

Detailed ideas within the frame.

Speedometer and odometer?

And here are the bike in actions!

Action One!

Action Two!

Action Three!

My man in red!