Archinect - News

Spires and Gyres: Contemporary Architecture in Jakarta

2017-11-28T14:56:00-05:00

Jakarta is perhaps the truest realization of a post-colonial cosmopolis. Many former colonial capitals stage a rivalry between quaint traditional centers and desperation-driven peripheries. But Jakarta can be understood not as a dialogue with its former foreign overlords but rather as a fiercely insistent projection of Indonesian independence.

In his latest article for Places, Joe Day examines the contemporary architecture of Jakarta through the framework of the utopian terms of the Five Pancasilas, the founding principles of modern Indonesia.

Day traces the development of Indonesian architecture from founding president Pak Sukarno's “modernism with Indonesian characteristics” to the new architectures heralded by the Arsitek Muda Indonesia (AMI) generation of the 1980s and '90s and their contemporary successors.

I scream you scream we all scream for this Indonesian library made out of 2,000 recycled ice cream buckets

2016-07-08T17:51:00-04:00

Designed by SHAU in Bandung (Indonesia's West Java capital), the two-story structure's facade is made from (you guessed it) a grid of recycled plastic ice cream buckets. The ground floor is kept open for various events and activities, and the actual library is located behind the buckets, on the second floor.

The kicker is that the buckets are arranged facing either in or out, forming a pattern in binary code that reads, in Indonesian: "book is a window to the world". Clickthrough the link for more info from GCR, and check out more photos in the gallery below.

Less ice cream, more libraries:

An interview with Indonesian architect Andra Matin

2013-08-06T16:35:00-04:00

Mark magazine #44 (June-July 2013) put the spotlight on the architectural scene in Indonesia. MovingCities contributed with an interview with leading Indonesian architect Andra Matin who is hailed as ‘a well kept secret in the architecture world’. An extract:

A major force within contemporary Indonesian architecture, the soft-spoken man is recognized as the helmsman of a generation of independent architects, yet hardly anyone outside his native country knows his name. Locally celebrated but internationally undiscovered, Matin was one of the first Indonesian architects to establish an independent practice after the fall of Suharto in 1998. (...) Andra Matin’s portfolio is vast and diverse. He designs houses, museums, galleries, restaurants, public parks, mosques and artist studios. (...) In 2011 Rem Koolhaas visited Matin’s office and future home. ‘I didn’t understand why he wanted to see my house. The day before he arrived, he saw another project of mine, the Winfred House, wher...