On January 9 – 13 2023, the History Theory & Architectural Heritage Cluster, Department of Architecture FT UI and VERNADOC Indonesia held a joint exhibition which took place in the Lobby of the FT UI Engineering Center Building. VERNADOC Indonesia, a vernacular architecture documentation organization chaired by the FT UI Professor of Architecture, Prof. Kemas Ridwan Kurniawan, S.T., M.Sc. Ph. D.
The first exhibition is the work of 7th semester Architecture Study Program students with the theme “HERITAGE”: reliving the building through adaptive reuse. As the title suggests, students are challenged to redesign four abandoned historic buildings around Jakarta, namely the former Kemayoran Airport, the Samudera Indonesia Building in the Old City of Batavia, the former Tjililitan Landhuis, and Pancoran Mas Elementary School, Depok Lama. This is in accordance with the theme of the Cluster Heritage exhibition which is to revive cultural heritage buildings through adaptive reuse methods, namely the reuse of a building while still maintaining its historical value.
Apart from being required to be creative in design, the design must also comply with the applicable building codes and cultural heritage rules, including Law no. 10 of 2011 concerning Cultural Conservation. This exhibition displays 12 selected project works from 2019 batch students of the Department of Architecture and is held in the main lobby of the Engineering Center building, Faculty of Engineering, UI. The twelve students whose works were presented were Jeannette Natasha, Lara Anthonia, Harish, Sandrina Aurelia, Alzena Ara Minta, Egi Gilang Guntoro, Luthfi Hadi P., Adelia Febiyanti, Nabila Syafitri, Raisa Putri A., Shafa Alifianisa Z., and Adinda Tracy.
“My hope is that this exhibition can increase public awareness to preserve cultural heritage around us so that it remains an important element for history, science, education, religion and culture,” said Raisa Putri, one of the PUSAKA exhibition organizing teams.
Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU welcomed the exhibition being held. “Indonesia has hundreds or even thousands of historic buildings scattered throughout the archipelago. Some are recognized as cultural heritage, but quite a few are not. The use of buildings with high historical value needs to be maintained so that they can be preserved and enrich the local history and architecture of Indonesia. Hopefully this heritage cluster exhibition will inspire FTUI Architecture students to help preserve Indonesian cultural heritage buildings.”
The second exhibition is an exhibition of VERNADOC Indonesia’s vernacular architectural documentation works featuring dozens of architectural illustrations over the past four years, including the Chinese Mayor’s House in Muntok-Bangka (2019), Kranggan Village House-Bekasi (2020), Gapura Palace Kaibon-Banten (2021 ), Bamrungmukunkrit Printing House-Bangkok, and Fishermens Cottage, Luutsaari (2022). The VERNADOC exhibition contains illustrations of houses and detailed architectural elements that are hand-drawn, precise and of good quality.
This Joint Exhibition was opened directly by the Deputy Dean of FT UI for Education, Research and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ir. Yanuar, M.Eng., M.Sc. In the opening of the event, Dr. Petra Timmer, a professional from the history & cultural heritage preservation organization “TiMe” based in Amsterdam as well as the keynote speaker at the WANUA 2023 Special Talk Series: Berlage in the Archipelago.
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Bureau of Public Communications
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia