Batik Represents Indonesia in London Festival of Architecture 

Thursday, 29 July 2010

The Jakarta Post

A swirl of giant batik with the theme “Landscape of Diversity” flows through South Molton Lane in central London’s exclusive Mayfair district.

The sight is rare, not only because batik is hard to come by in London, but also because instead of fabric, the creation is made of plywood.

The installation was the work of six enthusiastic Indonesian architects who called themselves Alur Design, representing their country in the 2010 London Festival of Architecture (LFA2010). Five of the group are among the top students from AA (Architectural Association) School of Architecture: Ardes Perdhana, Kuncara Wicaksana, Prama Milyardi, Rizki Nindito and Olivia Putihrai. Monique Suksmaningsih, the sixth, is a graduate from TU Delft, the Netherlands.

“We used a batik pattern as the basis of our idea because it represents Indonesia and batik is widely used in daily life from birth to the grave” explained Olivia. “UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a ‘Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’, and we use Kawung pattern because it is the oldest design.”

The bold Kawung pattern makes a strong visual impact on the installation.

“The batik installation is so big that it’s impossible to display in the Indonesian Embassy,” said Tumpal Hutagalung, the economic counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in London.

“We created a piece of Indonesian culture translated into English, based on what London brings to us: A new method of using materials, technology and a new design method,” explained Kuncara, about his team’s contemporary piece.

“The project became much more interesting and challenging when we realized how limited our time was as full-time professionals, and that the sponsor’s funding was far less than what we’d expected.”

 “We are grateful that the company that we work for supported us by providing a meeting place for after-office hours work and also sponsored our work,” said Monique.

The six all have full-time jobs working in international architecture companies.

“For seven months we found time in after-office hours, starting from 9 p.m. Many a night we stayed up until 3 a.m. And at weekends we worked from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on this project” said Kuncara.

The six members’ strengths complement each other.

Rizki said: “We have a super team, dedicated to the project. Each has different opinions but we fill in each other’s gaps. We believe in our ability. Our strength is in research analysis and design”.

Some members had international exhibition experience, such as Olivia in Amsterdam and Monique in Kuala Lumpur, but none had experience doing such work in London.

“It’s a different ball game. The whole team was involved right from coordinating until the installation stage” says Olivia.

“The Welcoming City” was what London wanted to be labeled in LFA2010, and that was also the theme of the brief given through the British Council to the participants who entered last year’s competition — with the winners’ works displayed in this year’s festival under the International Architecture Showcase.

Collaborating with embassies and cultural institutes around the world, Indonesia was the only country from Southeast Asia among the 34 participating nations.

The London Festival of Architecture 2010, which ran from 19 June–4 July, demonstrated how the city supports anything to promote London. Three hundred events were spread throughout the city, focusing in three areas on weekends for activities: central, east and south London.

The central district pays homage to the 19th century London urban planning architect John Nash, whose ambitious projects introduced comfortable pedestrian paths to the well-known upper-class Marylebone and Regents Park neighborhoods.

He also planned Trafalgar Square, the Marble Arch, the gate to Hyde Park, remodeled the area around Buckingham Palace and the canal links through London to the River Thames. Architecture is seen as an important part of the city’s history and also the life and future of the country.

There’s even a statue of John Nash, who’s well known for his 1811 Nash master plan, in Marylebone.  

“In the LFA, we can clearly see architecture as part of the community and public space,” said Monique.

Talks and debates were held under such themes as “The Triumph of the Pedestrian City”, which discussed whether London was sufficiently pedestrian friendly, and how to overcome challenges of shrinking space, or Architectural Charities, which explained the challenge of advocating and training in a disaster zone or poor and conflict areas.

In the high streets of East London, LFA embraces retailers such as Banana Republic, Anthropologie and Austin Reed to have installations by artists and architecture firms as their window displays.

 “London is very metropolitan; and even though each community is opening up to new culture, it still can maintain its identity,” said Kuncara.

Meanwhile, London’s Bankside — on the south side of the River Thames — with its Urban Forest theme, invited children to create buildings made of sugar cubes. Irish artist Brendan Jamison made a 2-meter wide model of the Tate Modern from 71,908 sugar cubes weighing 224 kilograms.

“I’ve been fascinated with building models since I was very young, starting with Lego” said Jamison, while he stacked sugar cubes into what looked like the base of an oval building shaped like a rocket.

In a back street area under a train railway bridge in Union Street, a patch of undeveloped land was transformed into a lush green community garden.

“The developer of this land loves our idea and supported LFA project by kindly lending us this piece of land for three months,” Moira Lascelles, LFA’s consultant curator, told The Jakarta Post.

The garden offered a plant swapping program, a toad-spawn pool for children, a bus shelter decorated with children’s drawings and a theater stage made of recycled products. All the projects in the Urban Orchard were recycled.

Used tires were stacked with a plastic sheet on top as stage lamps, and shredded tires replaced gravel on the garden paths.

In 2012, London will host an LFA biennale as the gateway for the London Olympics and Alur Design is keen to participate.

“We would like to take Indonesian heritage to another level with a new design method with a piece that interacts with the public, to take the modernity of Indonesia further into the future without losing its identity,” Lascelles said, adding that Indonesia, with its richness in culture and diverse architecture, should take note and be proud to exhibit and promote itself to the world with a similar event.

As Rizki said: “All it needs is integrated support from the government, the city mayor, Indonesian companies as well as from the public to make it happen.”