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Green and Tidy | publication

bert — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:44:22 +0000

Puri Indah by mamostudio | Mark Magazine#21

In Mark Magazine #21 (August-September 2009), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published a review of the Puri Indah House by the Jakarta-based architecture office mamostudio. “Green and Tidy” is now online.

Also included in the aforementioned New Indonesian Architecture-publication [in SPACE#498], this review in Mark #21 [check ArchDaily synopsis] discusses more in-depth the recently finished house/studio in Jakarta for a photographer and painter:

The Puri Indah house is mamostudio’s most recently completed project. The client is a photographer and painter who needed a place to work and space to exhibit his private portfolio and art collection. Natural light plays an important role in the design, as does the concept of rationality. ‘I wanted to question rationality,’ says Purnomo, ‘To see if it hampers or promotes the creative process.’ The result is a dwelling with a rational structure that nevertheless leaves space for creativity. The house is set up as a series of slanting walls on a rigid grid, on the premise of catching and redistributing sunlight at certain hours of the day.

Puri Indah by mamostudio | Mark Magazine#21

The work of mamostudio is surely one to keep an eye on, as it addresses a set of issues – rationality, low-budget, green, urban architecture – and solutions for how to live in large-scale metropolis that are under development. Jakarta, which we observed and interpreted last year in a series of posts, is the apotheosis of the architecture of airconditioners, a culture mamostudio intelligently aspires to stay away from:

In the Puri Indah house, the plants are on the roof. They ensure the house is shaded and kept cool, while still admitting daylight into the house. His architectural aversion to air conditioners isn’t solely based on personal preference, but also on his idea that they generate complex problems.

full article: “Green and Tidy | mamostudio” – Mark Magazine #21 (Aug-Sep 09)

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Green and Tidy | publication

New Indonesian Architecture | publication

bert — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:53:20 +0000

New Indonesian Architecture | SPACE #498

The 498^th issue of South-Korean architecture magazine SPACE features a special on New Indonesian Architecture. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities wrote the introduction essay and selected recent works by Studio Tonton, mamostudio, 12AKITEK and Ahmad Djuhara. Text and images now online!

New Indonesian Architecture | SPACE #498

Based on the new Indonesian architecture projects that were visited during last years’ trip to Jakarta [on invitation to be part of the jury for the 2008 Architecture Awards organized by Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI)], we got to know the work of a small, vibrant and emerging architectural arena in Jakarta. In SPACE’s introduction essay, called “Regional Architecture Confronting with Indonesian Tropical Climate“, the following analysis is made of the scene:

They might not share a common architectural language, but they surely share a common concern. It is this spirit that is reinterpreted by a younger generation today. Although different in styles and forms, the projects presented here share similarities in their approach to the common factors of heat, wind, and rain. The quest to build structures that blur the boundary between the outside and inside spaces has stimulated a local contemporary tropical architecture. Emerging from a small but vibrant architectural community is design that balances local responsibility and global creativity.

Following projects are now online on SPACE-website:

Wisnu House | Ahmad Djuhara

Studio Tonton Office | Studio Tonton

Traffacon Office | 12AKITEK

Puri Indah | mamostudio

In the coming weeks MovingCities will publish an in-depth follow-up review on the pictured-above Puri Indah project by mamostudio, as Mark Magazine #21 (Aug-Sep 09) features it in its most recent issue.

Pictures by movingcities.org

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New Indonesian Architecture | publication

Jakarta | urban snapshots VI

bert — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:43:32 +0000

Jakarta, October 10-15. A last series of urban snapshots, Jakarta as seen from and experienced by roaming its rooftops. Standing high-above the city, miniaturizing and monotoring the metropolis, adding a multitude of perspectives to an urban setting that now has become strangely familiar, but constantly unrecognizable, to me, I couldn’t stop thinking that anything, it seems, can happen from now on with Jakarta. As if Jakarta is a jungle of planning juxtapositions, an urban condition located in the urban researcher’s blind spot. A place outside the rigid realm of planning giving way to a mash-up metropolis of architectural styles, a collection of attempts to implement a diversity of urban policies.

In the past weeks I have tried to get a grip on this city, something which resulted in an intriguing discovery of a, to me, previously unknown metropolis. Seeing Jakarta from its rooftops, endlessness was the word that haunted me during my journey. Scanning the city from the ground, diversity and temporality was all I could experience.

Throughout the past half a century Jakarta seems to have developed in such a drastic manner, and has pushed itself in all directions, thereby building the full back catalogue of urban and architectural strategies and concepts, that it would be awkward and absurd to try to define its character. Is the Jakarta we see today a forebode of an appealing, and possible, other urban future? One at odds with those cities that can be analyzed according to parameters of density, icons, slums and traffic jams. It would be too easy to state that for Jakarta, in the future, anything is still possible. That might be true, but equally necessary it would be to understand what should happen. As intelligent it would be to engage with the problems this city has given rise to, I believe it would be even more intelligent and critical to understand the solutions that have emerged out of this urban condition. Maybe it would be better if nothing would happen at all and see where this state of exception leads to.

View from Oktroi Plaza | October 10

View from Trisakti University | October 14

View from Tarumanagara Univeristy | October 15

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | urban snapshots VI

Jakarta | urban snapshots V

bert — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:44:15 +0000

Jakarta, October 14. No better way to move through Jakarta than on a motorcycle. On our way to Trisakti University, Danny Wicaksono drove through little alleys, over highway intersections, in-between financial district and along residential compounds. From the back of the motorcycle I started scanning the city, at once hectic, randomly chaotic, but still moving forward. Motorcycles, cars, little trucks, big trucks, buses and pedestrians started moving towards us constantly from all directions, and once we could make speed Jakarta’s buildings started fleeting around us, turning the city into a whirlwind of styles and shapes. Some drive-by shooting doesn’t reveal the intensity of this experience, the daily reality of the inhabitants of Jakarta, the smells, colors and warmth through which we tried to find our way.

In the afternoon I took again the TransJakarta, after my earlier trip on Koridor I, I moved along what appeared to be Koridor II, a loop connecting the outskirts with the Harmoni Bus Station in the center of the city. Moving Eastwards, seemingly parallel to the Java Sea (which I couldn’t see), one enters a territory of slums, temporary housing and sprawled skyscrapers. A couple of snapshots.

Jakarta from the back of a motorcycle | October 14, 2008

Jakarta from inside the TransJakarta | October 14, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

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Jakarta | urban snapshots V

Jakarta | urban snapshots IV

bert — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:54:40 +0000

Jakarta, October 8-12. Crisscrossing Jakarta and spending hours moving through the city in-between seeing Architecture. Measuring the size and intensity, the diversity and flow of the metropolis, while taking notes and trying to make sense out of all that is moving. After a couple of days in the city, it appears to me that in whatever direction one drives, a journey through Jakarta offers a relentless sequence of similar architectural and urban programs. The metropolis is composed out of a mix of shoppingmalls and sheds, gated communities and open-air markets, highways and little alleys all filled with motorcycles and SUV’s.

Although it is clear what the components are that make this city look vibrant and are able to digest future change of and on whatever scale, it is still unclear if there is a larger agenda behind this collisions of constructions; Jakarta is a city where one is constantly surprised about what to find around the corner. Anything can happen here, and the past days have taking me through districts filled with upper class Greek and Roman villa’s, along roads flanked with self-built structures, highways bordered with tropical vegetation, streets filled with floating street vendors and business district composed out of non-distinct office towers.

As endless as the city appears, its culture of congestion now and then thins out in golf courts and thickens around shoppingmalls. Jakarta is a city where the individual adaptation of architectural language has been put to test throughout the past decades, it is a designers’ delirium where the unlimited possibilities of combining materials and styles, some perfectly pure, others provocative, has been tested patiently. The overall result is probably not beautiful, but honest for sure.

Jakarta | October 8-12, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | urban snapshots IV

Jakarta | presentations

bert — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:50:51 +0000

Get Lost in Ordos | October 8, 2008

The invitation for Bert de Muynck | MovingCities to come to Jakarta was made possible by the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI). Next to visiting some of the entries for this years’ IAI Awards 2008, and being part of the jury, two lectures were given.

2 Lectures

The first lecture (October 8, 2008) took place at Gedung Dua8, a cultural and community center in Kemang, South Jakarta. Based on the lecture’s title, ‘Get Lost in Ordos’, it was not unsurprising that the evening was centered around the experience of 3 architects involved in the ORDOS100-project. After I gave a talk about our experience and analysis as ‘ORDOS100 Embedded Architects’, the two Indonesian architectural offices participating in this project each got the floor to present their designs. Glenn Hajadi presented the design of Zenin Adrian Design Lab, while Adi Purnomo | mamostudio presented his villa.

Get Lost in Ordos | Bert de Muynck, MovingCities | October 8, 2008

Get Lost in Ordos | Glenn Hajadi, ZADL | October 8, 2008

Get Lost in Ordos | Adi Purnomo, mamostudio | October 8, 2008

The second lecture (October 14, 2008) was held at the Faculty of Engineering and Planning of Jakarta’s Trisakti University. Both lectures has been organized by Danny Wicaksono, editor-in-chief of JongARSITEK!.

MovingCities lecture | Trisakti University, Jakarta | October 14, 2008

1 Jury

Every three years, the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) gives its Architecture Awards to best projects build in the past years. The announcement of this editions’ winners will be announced next month, so I can’t really tell anything about the decisions made and the discussions raised. The head of this years’ committee was Andra Matin (Wallpaper published his work in their Architects Directory 2007) and consisted out of Budi Lim, Eko Prawoto, Sonny Sutanto and Dr. Johannes Widodo.

Jury of the Indonesian Architecture Awards | Jakarta | October 11, 2008

Some entries for the Indonesian Architecture Awards | Jakarta | October 11, 2008

Eko Prawoto | Anyang Shrine | Seoul, South Korea | source: http://flickr.com/photos/eric_druse/

In the coming period I will post more about the architectural and research work undertaken by the members of the jury. As for now, a small insight in the work of Indonesian artist-architect Eko Prawoto.

Eko Prawoto is based in Jogjakarta and his work has been described as “a remarkable example of a new generation of architects living in the developing countries who struggle daily to improve the living conditions of the common people.” (see Eko Prawoto on Arte All’Arte-website). One remarkable example of this are the wooden structures he build one week after the big earthquake disaster in Yogyakarta (May 2006). Eko worked in a project that oversaw the reconstruction of the houses, working together with homeless survivors. An article called “Indonesian architect works with quake victims to build temblor-proof homes” explains the reason why he chooses for wooden structures, leading to houses estimated to cost 10 million rupiah (US$1,060), in this context:

The 6.3-magnitude temblor killed 5,800 people, injured up to 40,000 people and destroyed or damaged almost 600,000 houses in the heavily-populated area, which like much of Indonesia faces a constant risk of serious earthquakes. (…) Many of the houses that were damaged or flattened were built of brick and concrete and featured little reinforcement to resist the shockwaves of the quake, Prawoto says. (…) “It’s a wooden structure — which is elastic — and absorbs shocks … During an earthquake, you have pushing and pulling forces. Each junction should resist these kind of forces,” he said.

More insight in the work of Eko Prawoto can be found in the following articles:

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | presentations

Jakarta | urban snapshots III

admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:41:08 +0000

Jakarta, October 6-7. Two walks, two heights, two different cities. Two of the unlimited amount of cities that Jakarta has given birth to in its urban evolution. It would be too easy, after these few days, to describe Jakarta as a place where architectural adjacencies are the norm, a city of collisions and clashes, resulting in an obvious state of chaos. Jakarta shouldn’t be analyzed as a city, because it isn’t. It might have the pretense of being one but it isn’t.

Strolling around on its rooftops, through its hotel-rooms, little alleys, corridors and shopping-malls one can only feel happy to experience the intertwining of the present and future Jakarta, a future that, so I imagine, through a constant process of adaptation, change and mutation embodies in a ridiculously honest way the mature megalopolis. It has laid the foundation for its future during the past decades and shows, architecturally, few sign of the stylistic growing pains that normally go along with change and development.

On October 6, I went in search for more height, more bird’s-eye-views and found myself in the heart of Jakarta’s Golden Business Triangle (Mega Kuningan) near multinational corporations, embassies and shoppings, and watched the city from the Marriott. On October 7, I took the TransJakarta to opposite end of my trip on October 5 and arrived at the Kota Train Station. From their I walked south to the Harmoni bus station. A journey that brought me through little alleys, along mosques, sheds, street vendors and shops, straight into the heart of the residual paradise of self-build architectural in(ter)ventions. Despite the obvious harsh hygienic conditions the inhabitants of this area suffer from -floods, open sewage, rats and cats- I found it to be one of the most alive, bursting, energetic, creative, absurd, over-the-top architectural settings I saw so far. As the camera works quicker than the mind, the shutter faster than the keyboard, images more immediate than words, for now some snapshots.

View from the Marriott in Jakarta | October 6, 2008

The residual realm in the heart of Jakarta | October 7, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

Related MovingCities publications

Residual vs Icon – A Beijing Case | Polarinertia

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | urban snapshots III

Jakarta | urban snapshots II

bert — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:42:55 +0000

Jakarta, October 5. A journey into the heart of Jakarta’s public transport system. Crossing the city with TransJakarta, the city’s rapid bus transit system. Currently it has 7 lines, while 32 are said to be under construction. Jakarta is a city without any subway network, so rapid bus transport is the means to move. The system is modeled on the TransMilenio system in Bogotá, Colombia.

Taking it to the end of the red line (Koridor I), one arrives in an area called Blok M, a business and shopping quarter located in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, Indonesia. Strolling around this transportation hub, one finds oneself in an architectural setting of the self-build postmodern kind. In-between these buildings, merchants float, street vendors shout and traffic seems to come from all directions at once. After a trip on the city’s ground level, I needed a break, so went in search for the comfort of the bird’s eye view, saw the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, entered it, went up and couldn’t resist taking pictures. An impression in snapshots.

Blok M | Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta

View from the Grand Hyatt | Jakarta

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | urban snapshots II

Jakarta | urban snapshots I

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:17:53 +0000

View from the Four Seasons | Jakarta, October 4, 2008

On Friday October 3, Bert de Muynck | MovingCities arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a two weeks work and research stay. How does the fourth largest urban area in the world looks like? How does it function? What is the state of the city in Jakarta? During the first weekend Jakarta’s skyline was scanned by hopping from one hotel roof to another, picturing the present and getting grip on a urban situation that is referred to as ‘problematic’. As it is the end of the holidays here, the city looks dormant and strangely empty.

The invitation to come to Jakarta has been made possible through the Indonesian Institute of Architects (Jakarta Chapter) and a lot of energy has been put into by Danny Wicaksono, editor-in-chief of JongARSITEK!. JongARSITEK! is a free architectural e-magazine made by a group of young Indonesian architects. Most of the articles are still in Bahasa Indonesia but the magazine is planning on making it bilingual in the next editions. In July MovingCities contributed to their issue with “Mediocrity and the Metropolis”. Check out their online magazine!

Sudirman Business District | Jakarta, October 4, 2008

The first weekend was mainly spend in Jakarta’s business district, called Sudirman Business District. From there the city was scanned at different levels, floating between formal and informal, with the hope to see what is the outcome of a city where the population in 1960 was 1.2 million, 8.8 million in 2004 (while the population of greater Jakarta is estimated at 23 million) and is expected to be 24.9 million by 2025. And that is only counting the legal residents. To be continued…

Walking around the Sudirman Business District | October 4, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Jakarta | urban snapshots I