Archinect - News

A utopic city, monument to a president's ego, maybe just a future "jungle resort"

2024-05-08T11:58:00-04:00

It is estimated that the construction of Nusantara will cost $38 billion, with 20 percent of that coming from the Indonesian coffers...But the vast majority of the metropolis – 80 percent of it – is to be financed by private investments. Everything that actually makes a city a city...And that is currently where the greatest hurdles lie: The investors are not showing up

Earlier this year, Maria Stöhr and Muhammad Fadli reported on Indonesia's plans for a new capital city. This mega-project is more than just a city but a new capital region. It is billed as "The World's Sustainable City" with plans for "smart security." While the architect of the "Smart Forest City", Sibarani Sofia, admits they would have preferred a more modest design (the palace in the shape of an eagle was already baked in) some have raised economic and environmental concerns.

Indonesia begins construction on new Nusantara capital city in Borneo

2023-01-24T17:54:00-05:00

Indonesia expects to begin construction in the second quarter on apartments worth $2.7 billion for thousands of civil servants due to move to its new capital city on Borneo island, an official said late on Tuesday. Authorities have already started building basic infrastructure in the area, with an aim to start relocating some government administration and civil servants in 2024.

The 450,000-acre starter city’s initial residential program will include 184 apartment towers for a total of 14,500 government employees. AECOM and Nikken Sekkei are leading the development of its master plan towards an expected inauguration date to coincide with the country’s Independence Day on the 17th of August next year. Officials previously decided that the seat of power’s future in Jakarta is untenable owing to increased flood risk, rising sea levels, and a rapid rate of sinking that has been recorded up to 11 inches per year in certain areas.

Indonesia hires Aecom, McKinsey and Nikken Sekkei to design new capital

2020-03-04T15:45:00-05:00

The Indonesian government is involving three international consulting firms in developing the masterplan of the country’s new capital city, which is to be located in East Kalimantan. [...] American engineering company AECOM, consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Japanese architectural and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei would design the city, which is to feature the latest technology and be environmentally friendly at the same time.

In August 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had announced the selection of a 450,000-acre site in East Kalimantan province on Borneo Island where the nation's new capital would be relocated to.

Jakarta, the current capital on Java Island, is traffic-choked, increasingly prone to floods, and some areas of the metropolitan area with a population of more than 30 million have been sinking as much as 10 inches a year, caused by the digging of underground aquifers and amplified by rising levels.

As Jakarta sinks, Indonesia picks jungle site in Borneo for its new capital city

2019-08-26T18:30:00-04:00

President Joko Widodo announced Monday that officials had chosen an area in East Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo, for the as-yet-unnamed capital. Construction on the 450,000-acre site would start next year, and people would move in beginning in 2024. [...] Critics of the plan have warned that the cost of moving the capital could be untenable. [...] What’s more, shifting civil servants and their families to a new city in Borneo will not stop Jakarta from sinking, they say.

With some areas of Jakarta sinking as much as 10 inches a year, caused by the digging of underground aquifers and worsened by climate change, the need to relocate the capital has become more pressing in recent years.

The effort will cost an estimated $33 billion, President Widodo said during his Monday announcement, The Washington Post reports.