Design Anthology - Asia Pacific Edition
Through the Ages
The first instance of the name ‘Indonesia’ being used to describe the South East Asian archipelago was in the essay ‘The Ethnology of The Indian Archipelago: Embracing Enquiries into the Continental Relations of the Indo-Pacific Islanders’ by British ethnologist James Richardson Logan. The essay featured in The Journal of The Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, published in Singapore in 1850 and comprising writings about life on the islands penned by a variety of writers, from travellers to ethnologists. They all shared a fascination with the region, and their essays and reports ranged from records of natural disasters to ancient tribal rituals.
This conception of Indonesia is pivotal when it comes to understanding the modern country and its architecture; the name used by Logan contributed to a decades-long debate about how best to create a singular identity for a diverse archipelago with centuries-long traditions across many fields. Of course, the archipelago’s long and complex history has fundamentally impacted how its architecture is created and re-created. What in 1850 was a mysterious, biologically unique chain of islands has now become a country with unparalleled diversity and an architectural culture that is shaped by three distinct streams: ethnic architecture, specific architecture and generic architecture.
These streams themselves are fluid; the first, ethnic architecture, has been influenced by the various comings and goings of people throughout millennia. During the early Bronze Age around 3,000 years ago, a wave of migrants from southern China to western Indonesia resulted in the establishment of ancient kingdoms in the archipelago, and more complex ethnic architecture. Migrant traders, monks and religious leaders introduced Hinduism and Buddhism, whose influences can be seen in the ruins of the Tarumanagara, Majapahit, Srivijaya and Shailendra civilisations. Arabic and Chinese merchants also brought their culture and religious beliefs with them, contributing to the architectural diversity with the establishment of settlements as well as mosques and temples.
Waves of migration were followed by another strong influence — the colonisation of Indonesia by various European countries from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Portuguese, Dutch, French and British settlers introduced buildings featuring new and different typologies, and built using foreign construction techniques. The Dutch, who colonised the country for the longest period of time, made a major contribution to modern Indonesian architecture, including through the architectural education they introduced.
In 1901, Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands announced the implementation of the Ethische Politiek (‘Ethical Policy’) in Indonesia, a development policy aimed at repaying the natives by enhancing their quality of life after taking so much from the land. On the educational front, more schools were built across the country, including vocational technical schools focused on building construction that were opened in several cities. An architecture department was established at the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1920, completely changing the country’s architectural scene.
This was the beginning of specific architecture, a type of architecture created by Indonesians who had been to modern architecture school or interacted with European architectural knowledge. Specific architecture replaced a dogmatic approach to architecture with an open-mindedness that encouraged architects to create what had never been made before.
Instead of carrying forward traditions, architects prioritised the pursuit of originality and exclusivity.
Interestingly, Indonesia’s first native architect Aboekasan Atmodirono cannot be credited as the strongest native influencer of Indonesian architecture in this era. While Atmodirono established a construction school in his home town of Semarang, the figure regarded as the major change agent is the country’s first president, Sukarno. In 1961, Sukarno introduced the Eight-Year Development Plan. Concerning much more than economic development, the plan’s aim was to build a new nation — a modern Indonesian society — in a changing time.
Sukarno recognised that the architectural identity of this new nation could not be adequately represented by one or several of the many ethnic architectures that had shaped Indonesia in the past, as that had the potential to cause tension among the ethnic groups. Instead, he wanted a neutral architectural aesthetic that could be the face of modern Indonesia; this ideology led to the widespread use of the International Style, the best examples of which include the Hotel Indonesia, the first five-star hotel in South East Asia, designed by Danish architect Abel Sorensen and his American wife Wendy Becker, and Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in South East Asia, by Indonesian architect Frederich Silaban.
But Sukarno’s plan did not see out its intended lifespan. A worsening economic situation led to political turmoil and the rise of Suharto, an army general who eventually replaced Sukarno as president of Indonesia in 1965. The era of The New Order began soon after. With the aim of fixing Indonesia’s economy as soon as possible, Suharto’s government promptly deactivated the Eight-Year Development Plan in 1966, replacing it with a five-year plan called Pelita in 1969. This plan involved
opening Indonesia to foreign investors and encouraging as many Indonesians as possible to build their own houses, as the government lacked the funds to provide universal housing. Major developers began providing their services, as not all Indonesians had the means to build their own homes.
Most of the country’s big cities were developed very rapidly during the economic boom from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly Jakarta. It became a city dominated by three types of settlements. Organised settlements were newly opened suburban housing compounds built by housing developers who owned land in various cities; semi-organised settlements were comprised of houses built by individuals located on land once owned by local landlords; and unorganised settlements occupied formerly unused land, for instance on riverbanks or along train tracks.
These three types of settlements defined generic architecture in Indonesia. Designers were generally anonymous, and houses were built using materials that were readily available in building material shops located throughout the city and incorporated construction techniques common among local workers. At the same time, however, villagers who had usually built their houses using soft materials such as wood, bamboo and hay were taught by the military to build with hard materials such as cement, bricks, reinforced concrete and zinc. Rem Koolhaas, who spent time in the city as a child, noted this when he wandered through a semiorganised settlement in Jakarta in 2011, saying: ‘It’s weird. The chaos is still the same, only the materials are now hard.’
The era of The New Order was also a time when the profession of architect in Indonesia began to truly develop. Architecture firms such as Wiratman, Encona, Team Empat and Atelier 6 began to dominate Indonesia’s architecture scene, employing hundreds or even thousands of architects and working on a variety of projects from private houses to power plants. The growing economy and expanding cities created the demand for more buildings and a consequent increased demand for architects. Architecture schools began opening all around the country. From 1920 to 1965, Indonesia opened only seven architecture schools, but by the end of Suharto’s reign in 1998 that number had ballooned to 77.
However, despite these raw numbers, Indonesia’s militaristic-capitalist regime at the time did not encourage a vibrant architecture scene. Instead, the nation’s architecture stagnated. Although buildings quickly appeared throughout Jakarta, their architects were not as easily recognised. ‘At that time, it was like there was some sort of shroud that was covering the nation,’ said Irianto PH, the first president of Arsitek Muda Indonesia (‘Young Indonesian Architects’), an architectural discussion group founded when Suharto’s regime was at its peak in the late 1980s. While students were arrested for criticising the government’s policies and citizens were reluctant to gather, group members such as Andra Matin, Yori Antar, Adi Purnomo, Ahmad Djuhara, Tan Tik Lam, Anthony Liu and their friends
held weekly after-hours discussion sessions, making their ideas heard through exhibitions and independent publications, and quickly becoming the voice of their generation.
When another economic crisis hit Indonesia in 1998, leading to Suharto’s resignation, many major architecture firms in Indonesia were forced to lay off most of their staff. This led architects to begin working on their own projects and setting up their own studios, creating a new culture of boutique offices with more explorative and interesting design mentalities. Architects that have led the architectural discourse post-1998 include those former AMI members, and their best works have been widely published in Indonesia. This has promoted further appreciation of the profession and encouraged more people to collaborate with architects, creating an era of fresher designs and changing people’s perceptions about architecture.
Today, architectural activities in Indonesia are becoming ever more vibrant. Around 100 more architectural schools have opened since 1998. The different architecture streams are inevitably interacting more with each other. Yori Antar through his Rumah Asuh Foundation aims to preserve, document and revitalise the unique construction techniques of the remaining ethnic architecture. Larger numbers of people are migrating to Indonesia’s major cities, bringing their cultures and traditions to new businesses and thereby merging ethnic architecture with generic architecture in a new hybrid form of building that also symbolises a certain business identity. Interactions between generic and specific architectures are also on the rise. Architects are helping inhabitants of unorganised settlements to improve their living environments, while developers who used to create generic architecture are now keen to collaborate with architects to help them build better and more innovative designs.
These interactions are slowly creating a better architectural ecosystem in Indonesia. With this kind of energy and diversity, Indonesian architects are set to contribute even more to global discourse in the future.