Thesis Studio 1 Insertion/ Juxtaposition/ Reinvention
“Resurfacing” Tiffany Natasha Santoso
Thesis Studio 1 Dr. Amanda Achmadi Insertion/ Juxtaposition/ Reinvention
“Resurfacing� Rethinking memories and revising traumatic past of Chinese Indonesian
“Resurfacing� Rethinking memories and revising traumatic past of Chinese Indonesian
Acknowledgements I want to thank God, for making all of this possible and giving me the opportunity to learn so much for my last thesis semester. Thank you, for putting everything beautiful in its time. Furthermore, this thesis project would not have been possible without the thoughtful guidance of Dr. Amanda Achmadi, I want to say my deepest gratitude for her kindness, care and attention throughout the whole semester. Also, it would not be possible without the support and extra-feedbacks from my wonderful studio classmates, thank you for such a rewarding and insightful learning experience this semester. I have grown with so many excellent individuals. Last but not the least, I want to thank my loving family + Daryl and my friends, The Wonos, Bea, Dianna, Adel, Dea, Monica, Arya, Jacob, Guidho, Inez, Kak Rani Pramesti and everyone else whose names I cant mention one by one. Thank you for every prayer and thought spared, for every help and support, for the energy lifts, for everything. You all are the reason I managed to get through this semester in one piece.
Studio Brief: Insertion/Juxtaposition/Reinvention Written by: Dr. Amanda Achmadi
Key Questions What is the role of contemporary architecture in historic urban environment? How can contemporary architecture mediate a meaningful encounter with historic urban setting? How do we design a meaningful contemporary space within a historic urban setting? Urban Context - Kota Tua Revitalization Program The historical environment explored in this studio is the old town district of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and the largest mega-cities in the Southeast Asia region. The city’s long history, dating back to 1527, entails contestation between diverse indigenous states and their subsequent encounters with the Portugese, Dutch and English colonialism. Today, the sprawling metropolitan Jakarta is a home of a socially and ethically diverse population of around 22 million people. The old town district is in a stage of decay for most of part of the contemporary era and a site dominated by urban informality. Since 2014, the district has been subjected to a collaborative design intervention involving leading international architects such as MVRDV and OMA and leading Indonesian architects, such as Andra Matin and Han Awal & Partners. Site The site is situated on the north-western corner of the Fatahillah Square in North Jakarta on the southers side of Kali Besar TImur 4 Street. Programs The urban block is situated within a mixed used zone. Jakarta’s urban planning department has allocated the following users for the area: commercial/service/retail/office/education/convention/hotel/residential. The thesis studio requires the development of a mized used program which will include two of the following key programs: an arts institute, a cultural centre, a public library, a community centre.
“Resurfacing�
Table of Contents Introduction 1. Thesis Statement 2. Supporting Research 3. Brief Development 4. Design Sketches 5. Presentation Documents 6. Bibliography
1. Thesis Statement
ISSUES Background Findings
Questioning Modern Jakarta Jakarta’s identity? • Political ambitions • Largely economic driven • Jakarta – ‘’the project city”, the city that develops on the basis of making deals for profit (Kusno 2012) Heritage in Jakarta - Kota Tua Revitalization Program • Museum and art gallery or commercial cafe, restaurants and hotels • Government’s marketing strategy to increase tourism and improve nation’s economy • Private sector’s commercial benefit • Stays within the imagery of European/Dutch influence in Batavia • Commercial - loss of authenticity? • Exclusivity but not inclusivity
ISSUES 1. Ethnic Suppression
• Soekarno - liberation from colonial elements to achieve ‘modern’ Indonesia • Soeharto - repressive selection of ethnic groups to create a sense of nationalism and create a national style of a unified Indonesia • Architecture in Indonesia as a medium of political status and business interest to achieve ‘modernism’ • “Kampung-kampung”/traditional ethnic villages/structures that have stood up and develop its mnemonic quality for years and decades are taken for granted, replaced by the mega structures (Kusumawijaya 2006) • Kampung-kampung and the traditional ethnic village is modernism as well – they indicate civilians, creativity, shows decades of processes/changes (Kusumawijaya 2006) • IE. Ethnic Chinese culture in Indonesia is an example of ethnic suppression, there were little work done for them compare to what they have contributed and experience
Have Indonesia truly express ‘Unity in diversity’?
ISSUES 2. Significance of memory in Jakarta Jakarta - A city of collective memory or a city that reconstruct its own history? • Monuments in Jakarta - statues, as a leader’s vision of a ‘new image’, an awareness of a new nation • “A city is a collective memory of its people, and like memory it is associated with objects and places. The city is locus of collective memory.” - Aldo Rossi • A monuments persistence or permanence is a result of its capacity to constitute the city, its history and art, its being and memory. Monumental space = context/ place + citizenry - monuments in Jakarta are disconnected with its context • Heritage building is associated with commercial purposes • Nation’s approach of facing the trauma = rebuilding new image, wiping all traces of tragedy • IE. Injustice to the Chinese ethnics/Chinese Indonesians who have experience multiple racial violence ie. The 1740 massacre & the May Riot 1998 If, “A city is a collective memory of its people and like memory it is associated with objects and places. The city is a locus of collective memory.” – Aldo Rossi
Rebuilding new image? Jakarta has been erasing it’s own collective memory, like a city without soul, a city that forget it’s own people...
ISSUES 3. Urban Informalities - Informal Economies • Jakarta’s uneven development - lower class appropriated the space of the city for themselves, making Jakarta a center of vendors and spontaneous settlements, to express how their presence needs to be tolerated (Kusno 2013). • Street vendors are marginalized even though they contribute to urban employment • Informal sector is also parts of the economic structure of the society • There has been little exploration on the relationship between the formal and informal, the incremental nature of urban informality • IE. In the relationship between the Chinese ruko (shop house) and the kaki lima (five foot ways - street vendors) during the colonial period of Batavia disappeared as an integrated element of the building, replaced by a parking space for cars (Kusno 2013).
Architecture in Jakarta have not contributed enough in the equality of power distribution
Thesis Statement “Resurfacing” Rethinking memories and revising traumatic past of Chinese Indonesian
The restorations of heritage buildings in the Kota Tua Revitalization program are largely based on the government’s marketing strategy of reviving the city’s tourism and economy or for the commercial benefit of a private sector. Moreover, research has suggested that in terms of heritage conservation … commercial development could lead to the loss of authentic atmosphere (Starr in Labadi S. & Long. C 2010). Targeting primarily the middle to upper class sector, this seems to create exclusive rather than an inclusive environment within Kota Tua. Furthermore, the revitalization program seems to suggest a selective framing of our history, emphasizing largely on the European heritage and colonial buildings associated with the Dutch colony. There seems to be less of an emotional and physical engagement with the ‘difficult histories’, the hidden facts and lost memories within the site. People can no longer viscerally feel the stories that lay beneath the intricate constructs of the historical vicinity. The experience of the colonised has been repressed throughout our post-colonial history. People/architects/constructs have failed to embrace the diversity of ethnicity and social class that define Jakarta. This unique characteristic has been overclouded by ethnic and social class suppression and silent repression of memories of minority groups and rather, flaunting progression and the modernity. Many of the buildings and monumental statues are built to improve the country’s economic and political status. What is missing in the revitalization of Kota Tua? Similar to the city, Kota Tua lacks cultural pluralism or the ability to accentuate the historical cosmopolitan history of a place. It is crucial to understand that urban culture extends beyond the political imagining of the city and its history; it includes building awareness of changes in the social-cultural environment (Kusumawijaya 2006). Who lives within the proximity of Batavia then and now? To whom the restoration process may benefit? These forgotten people are the suppressed ethnic groups, the marginalized social groups that have been scarred by the racial violence and the neglected street vendors of the urban informalities. This thesis aims to focus on Chinese-Indonesians as one example of suppressed ethnic group that experienced multiple racial violences during both colonial and post-colonial period. There is a need for a place that symbolizes the appreciation of the Chinese Indonesian experiences of violence and the difficulties. A place that can overcome their traumatic past, acting on Indonesia’s unspoken desires for justice, forgiveness, and relief (Kusno 2010). The approach taken is to resurface the past and uncover the historical traces of Chinese-Indonesian presence and contribution in Batavia. This thesis does not want to impose “Chinese-ness” on the site but aims to create meaningful recollections of their forgotten traces in Batavia.
The proposal as a whole is a monument consisting of a community center and museum, which include programs of the following: • Underground Museum of the Past/Rumah Akar as the portal to the past: Permanent galleries to commemorate the racial violence that the Chinese-Indonesians experienced, the Batavia 1740 Massacre, killings of 1965, and May Riot 1998, and a gallery dedicated for the Chinese Indonesian women, victims of rape during the 1998 riot. • Shop Houses Community: Commercial and community spaces for visitors, artists, writers and activists, and a space dedicated for the street vendors. • Shop Houses Community: Private area for the artists, writers and activists and communal area for large group brainstorming between them. • Rooftop museum: grand forum for the future: A space for temporary exhbitions prepared together by the artists, writers and activists. This thesis questions the role of architecture and its pragmatic programs in unearthing unwanted memories, to prevent the past from repeating itself: • What is the role of architecture in these relationships: memory x place, identity x change of social consciousness, violence x collective memory? • In creating a narrative architecture, how will we achieve the balance between looking back and moving on from a trauma that demands a representation yet refuses to be represented? The proposal is a site-specific approach that is dedicated for the Chinese-Indonesian in the midst of the Dutch colonial buildings: the entrances and circulation of the proposal respond to the existing museums available on the site and focuses on the Fatahillah – Kali Besar axis in commemoration to 1740 massacre. Continuing the past typology of the office houses on Jl. Kali Besar 4 (adjacent to the site), the community center is a spatial reconfiguration of Chinese shop houses community. In terms of the macro approach, the reconfiguration is inspired by traces of shop house community/clusters footprints in Glodok. This footprint is then injected with multiple courtyards, a major key element of the shop house typology, as a unifying element to the individual shop house units. Thus, an internal landscape of large communal promenade is created. In terms of the micro approach, the reconfiguration of each shop house units involves the deconstruction of shop houses into separate volumes. These individual volumes will show different episodes of Chinese Indonesian history through cooperating different shop house elements from different era. The new formulated typology of shop houses will symbolize the trading of ideas between contemporary artists, writers and activists. It is a community center that aims to revitalize the role of Chinese Indonesians in Batavia as traders and shop house owners during the pre-Dutch colonization era up to the New Order era. Furthermore to cater the current users of the site, the street vendors, it is crucial to accommodate spaces, which the different type of street vendors can co-exist with the new shop house typology.
Furthermore, the program will also include an underground and rooftop museum as spaces of commemoration to the racial violence that the Chinese-Indonesia experienced, the Batavia 1740 Massacre, killings of 1965, and May Riot 1998. The entrance to the Museum of the Past (underground) will be from Rumah Akar, as a symbol of a portal to the past. The Museum of the Past includes permanent galleries to commemorate the racial violence which extends to the rooftop museum. The Gramd Forum rooftop museum is a space for temporary exhibition where the artist, activist and writers can create an exhibition together. The rooftop and underground museum will continue the grid of the shop houses community center and continue the architectural language of a shop house. The creation of different spatial qualities based on respective pragmatic programs of the two museums will create different atmospheres. However, the implementation of spatial cues through the play of light, material texture and spatial sequencing create a whole architectural promenade. Through this approach, the museum will be learning and healing center to revisit the past, to reflect on the present and to formulate a better future. To achieve these goals, certain architecture interventiones are applied: Porousness: creating multiple access from Fatahillah square and Kali Besar 4 as well as from the Kali Besar River for a public gesture. Shop houses inspired modular volumes: modular volumes of commercial/private, private/public spaces with courtyard in between them, this is inspired by traces of old shop-house community typology in Glodok. Internal courtyard promenade: a shophouse courtyard intervention: create a communal, continuity of space between the module of spaces with different programs. Sequence: using underground as metaphor to the past, the ground floor as the present day and the rooftop as the future, the end of the journey. Colour coding: A major method of adaptive reuse to accentuate the sequence of the whole promenade and to highlight certain shophouse elements referring to colour of the Rumah Akar external facade. . Holistically, the aim is to create a project that can become a monument/learning center for anyone who would like to learn more about the Chinese Indonesians. Nonetheless, by placing Chinese Indonesian as part of 21st century collective memory of Kota Tua, the project hopes to trigger the collective consciousness of civilians on hidden facts and lost memories of human rights, racial violence, rape and poverty.
2. Supporting Research
RESEARCH Chinese Ethnicity Before Dutch Colonization • Chinese settlements came to Java since the 13th century • Formed their own communities among indigenous and other foreign ethnic groups • Traders and shop owners of shop houses • Sold China wares (ie. Porcelains) and bought crops from the indigenous • Early Chinese settlers architecture was adapted to conditions in Indonesia (Nas 2006) • Use of local temporary materials - bamboo, dried coconut palm-leaf thatch, wood • Responded to humid climate in the use of scaffolding • Rumah petak - one floor building without any Chinese ornamentation, narrow as 5m but deep as 30 m. It contains a living room, a dark corridor and several bedrooms.
Early Chinese architecture was adapted to local conditions, a clear example to culture pluralism. Nowadays, why is this evidence of dynamic transformation in Chinese architecture replaced by a more literal interpretation of the Chinese architecture?
RESEARCH Role of the Chinese - Dutch Colonial Period • Middlemen for European traders and acted as mediators among different population groups • Early colonial period - a lot were kidnapped of by the Dutch from south coast of China and other parts of Indonesia to increase workers for Batavia, the Dutch relied on Asian inhabitants for finance and labour • Chinese start to come on their own from other parts of Indonesia for opportunities • Chinese settled in Batavia worked as merchants, carpenters and builders, farmers, fishermen and in ship repair and digging canals • Help with sugar cultivation • Dutch racial discrimination laws, all ethnic groups were required to dwell in their own ethnic ward and live accordingly to their culture • Architecture was used as ethnic identification • Shop house & five foot way - a space called five foot way connected all the buildings in a row at the street level • The VOC authority provided ‘trottoir’/walking pavement for pedestrians, as wide as 3/4 feet, not roofed • As Chinese population increases, ‘five-foot way’ was being utilized and occupied for temporary and semi-permanent set up for their stalls or barracks. Five foot way was: • An intermediate space - ease transition from exterior to interior • A pedestrian arcade for buyers • An extension of space to display goods for shop owners • A space filled by street-vendors - illegal activity by the immigrants who are in need of instant urban life • Shop house - Fujianese notion of Hoki/Luck. Reproduction of children and shop houses are perceived as products and sources of economic prosperity, the Chinese dedicate their life to live and do business in a shop house. • In the early 18th century after the 1740 massacre, ‘illegal’ activities as such was no longer allowed on the ‘five foot’ way. • Presence of Chinese ornamentation - ‘Duogong’ - a pair of swallow’s nest at both ends of the roof ridge of the main house or a pair of crawling cats on the roof of a shophouse. All these ornaments symbolized the prosperity the inhabitants hope to achieve. •1740 massacre – order of killing all Chinese and the burning of all Chinese shops and houses inside the city wall of Old Batavia
Original Pintu Kecil district on the southern side of the walled city in 1638. The district was destroyed during the 1740 massacre. After the massacre, Chinese were not allowed to live inside the city wall anymore and were moved to the present ‘Glodok’ area. As you can see in this picture, row of shophouses and its connection with the five foot way. How the street vendors start to fill up the five foot way space, as a part of the shophouse and beyond the shophouse.
Traces of (possible) early shophouses in Pasar Pagi
Stall under eaves in Batavia
Stall under eaves in Penang, circa 1991
Five foot way as a communal space
Stall under eaves in Hoian, circa 1993, diagram of various stalls settings
Main Features:
• Long, narrow spatial plan • Central courtyard x corridor • Gable roof and eaves • First floor living • Ground floor • Five foot way x street vendors • Balconies on the second floor
RESEARCH Role of the Chinese - 1740 Massacre • Was partly caused due to corrupted government, Batavia colonial authority failed to control the illegal activities (ie. five foot way stalls) despite their continuous effort (Izumida 2005) • Tension between Chinese and Dutch also worsen due to the rumours that numerous deported Chinese (due to over population) were thrown to the sea as they were sent away • The event was to prove who’s in charge of the power in Batavia •To handle this situation, there is a contradicting order of killing all Chinese approx. 5000-10000 (thousands are innocent) inside the city wall of Batavia and the burning of all Chinese shops and houses. A City Hall/Present day Fatahillah Square - where all cavalry and soldiers gathered and also the place of the execution of Chinese prisoners in the backyard of the Stadhuis (Fatahillah Museum/ Jakarta History Museum). Prisons were located underneath the square. B Jl. Pos Kota & Jl. Lada C Kali Besar ; Jl. Kali Besar Timur III D Kali Besar; north is to the left - streets and canals were filled with corpses E Fishmarket
RESEARCH Role of the Chinese - Dutch Colonial Period • After the 1740 massacre, the Chinese are being relocated to a town district outside the city wall – present day Glodok. Most Chinese shophouses inside the wall have vanished. • Chinese architecture in Batavia was built of brick and displayed European architectural ornamentation. Many shop houses are not adapted to local tropical climate, as the case with many European buildings. • Hybridism between Chinese and European architecture continued in early twentieth century • Shophouses typology started to implement the use of bricks, low pitched roof and European ornamented parapet while keeping the Chinese courtyard spatial tradition - Chinese way of life • Shop houses start to develop European Art Nouveau and Art Deco façade but keeping the same old spatial pattern of shop, corridor and family room. Five-foot way - stalls and barracks were no longer allowed. • Kali Besar – oldest buildings, office buildings which are improvements/further development of shophouses. Some young Chinese who are qualified for professional jobs inside the city wall of Batavia ranging from secretary and manager to doctor worked here. Courtyard house compounds which has similar typology as the shop houses acquired new functions such as small offices.
Petak 9/Glodok area traces of shophouses heading towards the art-deco style
Traces of Art-deco shophouses in Pasar Pagi area and Cirebon
Office houses infront of Kali Besar
More Dutch Office houses/shophouses infront aroun the area of Kota Tua.
RESEARCH Post Independence Jakarta: Chinese Indonesian Lost of Identity • Soekarno’s era - Chinese dominated trade in the retail and export-import sector • Indonesian killings of 1965-66 - Violence against PKI/Indonesian Communist Party, ethnic Chinese were largely targeted • Soeharto’s era - Repression of Chinese ethnicity, a two-faced politic • Chinese Indonesian are forced to relinquished their traditions and culture • Growing distrust towards the Chinese - Soeharto’s secret relationship with the Chinese businessman • Conversion of Chinese name to Indonesian names • Repression of Chinese architecture (Soeharto-Post Soeharto): • Shop houses are banned from using Chinese ornaments and signage • Modern shop houses during Soeharto time – standardize and modernized look by staging billboards - erasure of Chinese identity, architecture emphasise on the importance of economy. However ruko/shophouses were still the most targeted during the May Riot (Kusno 2010) • Five foot way start to slowly disappear as an integrated element of the building, replaced by a parking space for cars to accommodate high-end living. • May Riot 1998
Billboards covering the living floors of the shophouse/shophouses without the billboards
Modernised-standardized shophouse which has a pure commercial function
May Riot 1998 - Key Points • Program of rebuilding Glodok - create/reconstruct a ‘new image’ with an Indonesian spirit as an approach to forget the past and revive the damaged economy of Indonesia. • Glodok Plaza - A form of an amnesiac architecture, burying existing ruins of the riot. After the riot it is given ‘new image’ again with the narrowed perception of limiting modernity to “electronics and computers” and the use of new materials such as steel, glass, aluminium. The approach to the architecture is to create transparency, lightness/brightness, voyeuristic open atrium and integrations of Feng-Shui elements. The concept of the new Glodok Plaza is to eliminate all traces of riots, eliminating emotional burden of visiting, remembering and seeing the violence that was done there. • Pasar Glodok - A ‘fake’ image of harmonious community revived for tourism purpose & commercial benefit. The colonial style of Jakarta is to be revived as a part of Jakarta Colonial Town Revitalization project. Hints of Indies/Dutch ornaments and forms to remind that Glodok was a part of Old Batavia as well as the promotion of Chinese culture. Keeping the openair pedestrian spaces that will attract tourists. Mix of Western, Betawi-Sundanese, Javanese and Chinese elements that blends seamlessly – a disquieting thought/fake image of perfection, an architecture as a whole, a harmonious community which disregards the past.
RESEARCH Post Independence Jakarta: Chinese Indonesian Lost of Identity May Riot 1998 - Has the trauma been healed?
• The rebuilding of new image, will it actually stop the racial prejudice against the Chinese Indonesian? Does it stop Glodok from being a targeted area in the future? • The gang rape leaves permanent damage - stays in the memory • May Riot has been a taboo topic in the development of the nation’s history. Hence, revisiting this painful past have involved personal narratives, due to the erasure of history by the state, political figures (Kusno 2010). • The states’ denial of the gang rapes of ethnic Chinese women as it is produced through oral tradition clearly shows the repressed part of Indonesian history. Extreme past returns in a form of private narratives, passed on to younger generations and the older ones although they can’t forget them, chose to suppress them. Younger ones continue to carry the burden of these memories, keeping them off official records and confined to personal narratives and recording devices. • No monuments for the commemoration of the May riot, the past is registered not in any monuments, but in the minds of the people • The tragedy is hidden yet it is still in the hearts of the people who does not receive any acknowledgement and justice. • Identity crisis – they are not considered Indonesian but they don’t consider themselves as Chinese. There is a sense of emptiness in the recovery of Chinese culture, a “repressive silence”(Kusno 2010). • The Chinese lost their sense of place, the amnesiac architecture fails to give them a sense of place. What is the role of architecture in these relationships: memory x place, identity x change of social consciousness?
Glodok Plaza
Pasar Glodok
Kampung Cina, Cibubur
• Besides the amnesiac architecture, the appearances of ostensibly Chinese culture in a form of Orientalist Chinese architecture – “Kampung Cina”/’Chinese Village’, Cibubur express the desire to forget the traumatized space and time through re-imagining the supposedly timeless culture of Chinese. It is not about the tangled web of forgetting and remembering violence that is associated with the true Chinese history in Jakarta. What do the victims need? • Memorial to recall the event to turn private memories into a public history • A social action from which the future generation can remember and understand what had happened to prevent the past from repeating itself • How can the event trigger the “collective” consciousness of city dwellers who have been numbed by the apparent commonplace of violence, rape and poverty – How can we create social gestures about defending HAM/Human rights without being involved into the political part of the event and the painful memories associated with it? •“… [There is] a need for an appreciation of the Chinese Indonesian experiences of violence and the difficulties entailed in representing them and for the creation of complex mediations that can overcome the trauma of the past by acting on Indonesia’s unspoken desires for justice, forgiveness, and relief (Kusno 2010).” What is the role of architecture in these relationships: memory x place, identity x change of social consciousness, violence x collective memory
PRECEDENTS Adaptive Reuse - Insertion
Champollion Museum /France • Museum of world script - used to be the birth place of a scholar and philologist • Separation between new volume and old masonry shell • Series of juxtapositions of the old and new • Overlapping layers - multi layered design • The exhibition develops on different planes - different stories, different time periods
PRECEDENTS Contemporary Works - Traumatic Past Rani Pramesti – “Chinese Whispers”, Melbourne • An installation based performance in a form of maze – audiences enter a maze while wearing headphones listening to a music by Ria Soemardjo and interview excerpts of Chinese Indonesian women. • Newspaper clippings of the May Riot folded into elegant origami pieces; a forest of green foliage to comfort you as you listen to at times devastating detail about the violence; and a warm cup of tea to share with Fanny, the resident actor, who will greet you when you emerge from the maze. • Finding identity is like walking through a maze for Rani, a Chinese Indonesian, unsure of what the future holds for her. A battle against uncomfortableness to learn and heal yourself; “A blind corner after blind corner, and yet I pressed on.” • Everyone needs to be given the chance to commemorate and to relieve his or her fear and unpleasant memories in a certain place. • The installation aims to be an independent journey of deep thoughts and reflections • The uncomfortable and unpredictable feeling of being in maze works well as you wonder about the questions of race and identity and the dark spots of history that needs to be looked at. • A new interpretation of looking back at the past to allow yourself to learn and continually become a better form of yourself. • Architecture x sensuous experience • Worked with Chinese Indonesian Women - bigger discourse
PRECEDENTS Contemporary Works - Traumatic Past Stephanie Larasati – Museum Memorial 98 , Taman Ria Senayan (unbuilt project) Jakarta • Memorial building for the May Riot, documenting the history of May Riot 1998 to create awareness and conversations about racial violence and a place to reflect. • Programs include an interaction/public atrium that is interrupted by individual ‘boxes’ within the big semi open atrium. • Each block hold it’s own exhibition program bringing history back to life: a learning center, exhibition to commemorate the political struggle of the Chinese Indonesians, exhibition to commemorate discrimination, a phase of reflection, a stage of hope. • There is a play of light and shadow as each individual ‘boxes’ are individually designed with different configurations of wall and ceilings. Light is also associated with the individual themes. • Two ways orientation – a linear structure which act as a transition from the busy city towards the serenity of the water. Facing the water x facing the garden associated with past x future. Individual boxes are placed above the water. • A sense of phase/order with how the program is being articulated as one explore from one box to another. • Play of light x shadow and orientation to express the future x past • No reference to any Chinese architecture element or any particular style of architecture • Reference to local climate • Play of time and memory x deconstructiveness • Site - no real connection?
PRECEDENTS Contemporary Works - Traumatic Past DS Landscape Architects - Tilla-Durieux Park, Berlin • A landscape design that fills the gap that was once the Berlin death strip - site specific • A space to preserve the memory and to forget: what is the balance between looking back and moving on? • This was a wall that separated capitalism from communism. The design for this former death strip is treated in a playful manner: series of giant public see-saws and lawns that face one and the other side • “An under determined urban design in terms of both use and meaning. The task of engaging with history without locking in any particular narrative, is one of the more important but difficult tasks of urban design (Dovey 2016).”
PRECEDENTS Contemporary Works - Traumatic Past Peter Eisenmann – Berlin Holocaust Memorial, Berlin • A maze-like memorial that extends a whole city block with the ground plane excavated to differentiate the height of the columns • Use of stellar stone slabs - neutral colour, although it is a new material in the site • There is no centre or any disorientation because sight lines are maintained to the surrounding streets, no obstruction of views • This is an urban space that invites the user to go deeper into contemplation, the feeling of being ‘lost in the maze’, allow visitor to create their own journey, but there is no underlying meaning to be discovered • Open narrative design – behind its meaning, this memorial is commonly used as a playground (Stevens and Franck 2015). • The information center, composed of exhibitions, is built underground indicating the past/memory. Uses the same material and colour as the memorial, but each exhibition room has its own atmosphere. The grid of the monument is visible from all room in the information center, mapping onto the ceiling. The information center’s plan is also determined by the monument’s grid; however its lines are slightly diverted. This, creates the feeling of confusion and tension between the visitors as one walk through the center while looking at the monuments grid above on the ceiling
Monument plan view and Visitor Center plan view
Entrance/welcoming space: General vision/history of the holocaust
Programs: Room of dimensions: exhibition of diaries, letters, postcards, last news ever received from the victims during persecution period. Room of families: personal photos and documents documenting the lives of European Jews before the holocaust, and the kidnap and murder of families. The room also exhibits Interviews of surviving victims. Room of names: A room with seating, a space to commemorate victims as each name is showed along a recording of a short biography. Room of place: A room to recreate a subtle geographical dimension of terror and murder. A large map of Europe indicate different location of concentration camps. Photos of concentration camps along with an audio of survivor interviews.
Room of families
Room of names
Room of dimensions
Room of place
PRECEDENTS Contemporary Works - Shophouse A21 Studio – Saigon House • 3m width x 15m length • House shaped rooms within a shophouse typology - vertical village, insertion of volumes within a volume • Bringing in the characteristic of shophouse typology courtyard & balcony multiplied within the house • Interior is decorated with collected furnitures and stuffs over time and second hand things. • Maintain the shophouse characteristic of a more public space on the ground floor - semi outdoor courtyard for family gathering whereas the more private rooms are on the top floors. • Use of brick and timber to frame volumes
SCDA Architects - Heeren Shophouse • Insertion of volumes within the heritage shophouse • Clear separation between the old and the new • The old shophouse provides the ‘landscape’ for the new addition of volumes. • The old shophouse typology is still being kept: public areas on the ground floor and private areas on the upper floor. The courtyard still functions as a courtyard. Services are also still kept towards the back/ end of the shop house.
3. Brief Development
Indonesian-Chinese?
13th century
Who are we?
traders
shopowners
1740 massacre
me
and
workers
may riot 98
you?
KALI BESAR 1740
STADHUIS 1740
Chinese prisoner executions behind Fatahillah Museum
ORIGINAL/OLD PINTU KECIL BEFORE 1740
PINTU KECIL AFTER 1740
LEGEND
‘CHINESE VILLAGE’ AFTER 1740 GLODOK
Kali Besar
Existing Museums
Event - 1740
Pedestrian Circulation
Event - Post 1740 Event - May Riot 98
Site Area
1740 Massacre
S ART FINE UM E MUS
Fatahillah Museum ANG WAY UM E S MU
M/
U USE RY M O T S AH HI HILL FATA
Wayang Museum
LEGEND
Museum of Fine Arts
LEGEND corner blocks with similar shophouse community footprints/housing clusters with courtyard existing road/access path void/community courtyard
COMMUNITY CENTRE/ SHOPHOUSES
MONUMENT Who are we returning the site to?
MUSEUM Local Visitors
Chinese Indonesian ďŹ gures Local Visitors Victims + family
Soe Hok Gie - activist
Rani Pramesti - contemporary artist
Street Vendors
Criminals = victims
International Visitors
Myra SIdharta - writer
International Visitors
Tracing elements of early shop houses style in Indonesia
Tracing elements of early shop houses style in Indonesia
Tracing elements of early shop houses style in Indonesia
Tracing elements of shop house style after 1740
Tracing elements of shop house style after 1740
Tracing elements of shop house style on Sohearto’s era
Shophouse Elements 1. Five foot way
- 6/7 feet wide/2 meter - covered walkway - shop extension/street vendor and pedestrian space - weather protection
2. The shop (first floor)
- connected to five foot way - signage - vertical shutters/hinged concertina doors/ pintu pagar style for security purposes - older style consist of big windows and a door in the middle
3. Front doors
- main entrances to shophouses/non retail business which did not require the public display of goods and merchandice have door centrally situated - pair of window symmetrically paced on each side - pintu pagar style - allowing air circulation & security at the same time
4. Windows
- visibility + air ciculation - functional device and decorative feature as well - some form of shutter may be installed for security purposes while allowing air circulation - glass and air vents replace shutter later on
5. Courtyards/skywell
- small airwell/skywell that brought light into the interior - allow natural ventilation - bringing in outdoor-ness while minimising outside noise and warmth - collects rain water for pond as chinese associates flowing water as accumulation of wealth
6. Loggias
- ballustrated terrace over looking the street, on top of five foor way with chinese roof placed over the top - communication coridor between different rooms on upper floor - sun visor + a place to relax and enjoy the tropical climate
7. Internal Staircases
- functional device - normally placed opposite of courtyard - timber material with bricks at the base to prevent water contact
8. Bedroom (second floor) - upper floor private space - more intimate spaces
9. Signage
- signage for the shops
10. Roof and Roof tiles - use of chinese roof tiles
11. Chinese decorative elements
Early shophouse during VOC before 1740
Shophouse during VOC after 1740
Modern Shophouse in Soeharto era
Shophouse Elements
Early shophouse during Dutch colonial before 1740
1. Five foot way most apparent and celebrated
Shophouse during Dutch colonial after 1740
Modern shophouse in Soeharto era
five foot way space is still there but the activities were abolished
parking space is established instead
concertina doors as shop opening
concertina doors as shop opening
2. The shop/Public/Working (first floor) 3. Front doors big windows with shutters and a door in the center
4. Windows
big ones with shutter/ bars on shop level and style ranges on top floor, mostly oriental
no window on shop level and 2/3 neo classical/ art deco windows on the top level
5. Courtyards/skywell
2/3 art deco/modern style windows on the top level covered with billboards, hidden living
courtyard start to diminish as the shophouse function became commercialised
6. Loggias
shallower inner space and lack of depth
7. Internal Staircases
8. Bedroom/Private/Living (second floor) 9. Signage
10. Roof and Roof tiles
11. Chinese decorative elements
spaces organized vertically, living can lead to a third floor
Chinese ornamented signage, Chinese lettering
Chinese U/V shaped roof tiles, gable roof + wall, ‘duogong’ ornamentation
‘Duogong’ for the cantilever, a pair of swallow’s nest at both ends of the roof ridge or a pair of crawling cats on the roof of a shophouse
Chinese had start to lose their identity, European culture becomes their new identity
economy-driven commercial billboards to hide the Chinese identity/living
low pitched roof, European parapet, roof tiles are still used
low pitched roof, European parapet, roof tiles are still used
Chinese ornamentations start to diminish and lost in the neo classical/art deco style
Chinese lettering/ Chinese signages and Chinese ornamentations were banned
“It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.� - Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
4. Selected Design Sketches
5. Presentation Documentation
Front view from Square
Side view from Jl. Kali Besar 4
Side view from Jl. Kali Besar 4 towards street vendor cafe
View towards Fine Arts Museum and the Fatahillah square from artists, activists, writers communal space
Artist, writers and activists communal space view towards rumah akar
Grand forum rooftop museum space for temporary exhibition
6. Bibliography
Bibliography Information and Images from: Adaptive re-use precedents: Re-Use Architecture Uffelen, C.V. (2011) Re-use Architecture, Switzerland: Braun. Build On Lukas, F. and Klanten, R. (2009) Build On: converted architecture and transformed buildings, Berlin: Gestalten. Old Buildings New Form Bollack, F. (2013) Old Buildings, New Forms: New Directions in Architectural Transformation, NY: The Monacelli Press. Old Buildings New Design Bloszies, C. (2012). Old Buildings, New Designs, New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Archdaily Dezeen Jakarta/Kota Tua Batavia: After the New Order Kusno, A. (2014). After the New Order : space, politics and Jakarta, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Historical Sites of Jakarta Heuken, A. (2000 [1982]) Historical Sites of Jakarta, Jakarta: Cipta Loka Caraka. The Past in the Present: Architecture in Indonesia Nas, P. (ed.) (2006) The Past in the Present: Architecture in Indonesia, Rotterdam: Netherland Architect Institute (NAI). Heritage and Globalisation Labadi, S. and Long, C. (2010) Heritage and Globalisation, Oxon and New York: Routledge. KotaRumahKita Kusumawijaya, M. (2006). Kotarumahkita. Jakarta, Indonesia: Borneo Publications. Heritage Conservation: Heritage and Globalisation Labadi, S. and Long, C. (2010) Heritage and Globalisation, Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Bibliography Information and Images from: Chinese Indonesians: The Past in the Present: Architecture in Indonesia Nas, P. (ed.) (2006) The Past in the Present: Architecture in Indonesia, Rotterdam: Netherland Architect Institute (NAI). Growing Pains Lohanda, M. (2002) Growing pains: the Chinese and the Dutch in colonial Java, 1809 -1942, Jakarta: Yayasan Cipta Loka Caraka. The Appearances of Memory Kusno, A. (2010) The Appearances of Memory: Mnemonic Practices of Architecture and Urbanism in Indonesia, Durham: Duke University Press. Chinese Shop-houses: After the New Order Kusno, A. (2014). After the New Order : space, politics and Jakarta, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Malay Architecture as Lingua Franca Journal Izumida, H. (2005) Kaki Lima as Contesting Space between European and Asian Values, Malay Architecture as Lingua Franca. Singapore Shophouse Davison, J. (2010). Singapore Shophouse, Singapore: Talisman. Archdaily Deezeen Architecture & Memory: Urban Design Thinking Kim, D. (2016) Urban Design Thinking: A Conceptual Toolkit, London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Constructing Memory Rotem, S.S. (2013) Constructing Memory: Architectural Narratives of Holocaust Museums, Bern: Peter Lang AG. Sketsa: Memorablia IMARTA (2014). Majalah Sketsa: Memorablia, vol. 28. Rani P Collaborations. (2016). Home. [online] Available at: http://ranip.com.au/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2016]. Stephanie Larasati.(2016). Home. [online] Available at: http://www.stephanielarassati.com/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2016].