Thursday, September 28, 2017

Architect as a Citizen.. or Citizen as an Architect?


Two days ago, I went to the waterfront kampung in northern part of Jakarta. This area is not an usual kind of territory. This area already shaking off the power of government to demolish people living near from the river. The people are refused to move, otherwise they are willingly give the attention to the river and cut off their own home in order to give more space for the water.


Maybe we will judge them as a slum. But you will awestruck by their experiences and knowledge of their own living environment as soon as you met them. If government already demolish them, maybe I will not meet them yesterday. They are open for any kind of learning process and make the knowledge as a tool to achieve sustainable living on their own.


On the other hand, I also wondering what if architects meet them. Should I be worry or not? In fact, this area working with Architecture Sans Frontieres Indonesia. Gratefully they giving the community room for being architect themselves. As architect, giving other people space to make their own design is not something that we always do. It means that we have to give more time for people to fully understand the environment and their needs while the architects learning to become one with the community. It is not easy to let go our ego and throw all of our westernize technical knowledge in order to humbly learning from them.

If you ask me, If I am an architect, maybe my suggestion also to make this area to as similar as Dutch people do with the river. But that is not the point if we try to meet them personally. We have different people with different ways of life. Or should we make them move to the highrise community housing?


As I am not architect yet, my job now is to learning from them. All of things seems new. I am not sure what kind of role that I will take but to write this blog to asking some of the questions that I can not answer: What will architect do in the future? What if our job destroying the humbleness of people in kampung city? What if our design also make our city suffering?


Then, I will save the questions for tomorrow, maybe I will not become an architect, maybe in the future definition of architect will expand much more than now.
I am grateful enough to enjoying this cold Barongko, made from banana and coconut milk while introducing myself to the river community and activists

Selamat makan~!

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Thinking other than Architecture~



I'm thinking about something random these days. So many unexpected moments this year. I like imagining things but somehow it makes me feel both tired and happy.

I was waking up with different kind of feeling today~ Its like you are falling in love with something that you don't even know what. I'm dreaming something, but I can't even recall what it is. Strange feeling yet excitedly awesome~

Today, after I woke up with those kind of wonderful feeling, I decided to took train to my workplace. Riding train always give me a chance to read. Luckily, I got a seat and it was not even crowded. I found several interesting things from Peter Zumthor: Thinking Architecture.

Honestly, this is my first time reading this book out of my curiousity. I was reading it in my college years but only for assignment. I found it not as heavy as I remember when I was a freshmen. Actually, it is light reading material, yet deep and multi-interpreted. I found that in order to work, Peter Zumthor always using first person perspective:... I would choose material..., I see that..., I build something..., my work...etc. At first this would enhance my prejudice: architect is a self-centre people. All of things he decided are based on his memories, experiences, and knowledge. At the same time, he also admitted what he is lacking. Or what he regretted. He shows that he just human being. This book also the compilation of his writings which randomly connected to architecture. From nature, landscape, light, building, houses, to bikini.

I don't know what will I took from this book, but mostly I'm enjoying his writing as there are many of beautiful words written. Who's not enjoying morning train riding with a great and beautiful book?

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Menarilah... Denganku...

Di depan teras rumah
Fana merah jambu,
Ku berdua

Moment-moment tak palsu
Air tuhan turun,
Aromamu

Tersaluran aliran syaraf buntu
Martin tua media pembuka

Berdansa sore hariku
Sejiwa alam dan duniamu
Melebur sifat kaku-ku
Hal bodoh jadi lucu
Obrolan tak perlu,
Kala itu

Tersalurkan aliran syaraf buntu
Martin tua media pembuka
Berdansa sore hariku
Sejiwa alam dan duniamu
Melebur sifat kaku-ku

Rasanya tak cukup waktu
Terlalu cepat berlalu
Soreku nyaman denganmu
Menarilah, Menarilah
Menarilah, Denganku

Genggam tangan coklatku
Berputar-putar denganku
Menarilah, Menarilah...


Menarilah, Menarilah
Menarilah,
Denganku....




credit: @fourtwntymusic
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