Gatot Kaca is one of the most well-known wayang figures in Indonesian society and is nicknamed the iron bone wire muscle. This is what inspired 11 students of the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (FTUI) in designing the Gatot Tower, a 19-floor building that is expected to have very high revenue efficiency and seismic performance. The design of the Gatot Tower brought the FTUI team into the top 10 and won the best poster at the EERI Seismic Design Competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
“The challenge in this competition is to design tall buildings that can withstand earthquakes. In addition to strengthening the concept of Gatot Tower’s structural design, our team also incorporated elements of Indonesian and Salt Lake City local wisdom into the architecture of the building. We took inspiration from the design of Indonesian stilt houses and the characteristics of the cliff dwelling building of Salt Lake City in the design of the Gatot Tower,” said FTUI team leader, James Andrean Noel.
Together with James, the other FTUI team consisted of students from the Civil Engineering Department and the 2019 FTUI Architecture Department, namely Fahmi Katab, Naufal Budi, Ferdinand Trestanto, Michael Loreantz, Kanaya Diva, Eric Renaldy, Gagas Wicaksana, Juan Fidel, Adinda Khairunnisa, and James Paul Arthur. In designing the Gatot Tower, the FTUI team was guided by FTUI lecturers and professor, Dr. -Eng. Josia Irwan Rastandi, S.T., M.T. and Prof. Ir. Widjojo A. Prakoso, M.Sc., PhD., G. Eng.
“The structure of the Gatot Tower building is also designed with an inverted area which is a unique design. From an economic point of view, this building has a very high efficiency between revenue and seismic performance. Compared to the average building in the USA, which only has 80% revenue efficiency, Gatot Tower is proven to have more than 95% revenue efficiency,” said Naufal.
In terms of structural strength, the Gatot Tower building uses balsa material, shear wall technology, and shear walls to improve seismic performance capabilities. The Gatot Tower building can withstand earthquakes based on ground motion data generated during testing using a vibrating table in front of the jury in Salt Lake City. The building designed by the FTUI team can withstand earthquakes up to 5.5 on the Richter Scale.
The Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU expressed his appreciation for the achievements of the FTUI student team in the competition which took place on 1-3 July 2022. “It is proven that superior collaboration and teamwork between civil engineering and architecture can produce design innovations. good building. I hope this innovation can be implemented in earthquake-prone areas in Indonesia. Problem-solving innovations made by the nation’s children need to get full attention and support from all parties so that they can continue to be developed so that they have an impact on the community, nation, and state,” he said.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia