All About Architecture

Di Masa Lalu, Belanda yang Belajar dari Indonesia

2010-04-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

Aku sedang asik browsing tentang Belanda, ketika ga sengaja menemukan sebuah lagu lama yang dulu sering dinyanyikan Oma untukku..

O Donna Clara, aku telah melihatmu menari.. oh, Donna Clara, aku sayang padamu..

Omaa.. jadi kangen padamu.. saat itu sebelas tahun yang lalu (aku masih SMP), aku sering menghabiskan sore ke rumah teman akrabku Vina, yang memiliki Oma seorang Belanda. Oma seorang nenek yang kecil tapi sangat manis, sangat baik dan pintar menyanyi. Setiap kali aku datang ke rumah Vina, Oma biasanya akan mulai menyenandungkan lagu itu: O Donna Clara, dan bercerita betapa lagu itu terkenal di Eropa pada masa-masa muda Oma. Ahh.. Oma, aku juga sayang padamu.. Lagu O Donna Clara ternyata adalah lagu tahun 1930-an, di masa-masa Indonesia bahkan belum berani menikmati musik.. (belum merdeka sih.. )

Menghabiskan hari-hari di rumah Vina bersama Oma yang cantik dan baik hati, membuatku merasakan keramahan asli Belanda yang sebenarnya. Jauh sekali bayangan kalo orang Belanda itu suka menjajah, suka menyiksa dan sadis.. Baik hatinya Oma, baik hatinya Monsinyur juga.. sebagai anak SMP yang aktif dan juga energik, aku dan Vina punya hobi yang sama, yaitu mengoleksi prangko (filateli). Di masaku SMP, filateli menjadi hobi yang benar-benar sedang ‘booming’ dan mayoritas murid di sekolah berlomba-lomba untuk memperbanyak koleksi prangkonya, mulai dari prangko bergambar pa Harto, sampai prangko segitiga bergambar satelit Palapa. Mulai dari prangko lokal, sampai prangko luar negeri kami dapatkan melalui proses barter dengan para murid pemburu prangko yang lain.

Beberapa anak cukup beruntung karena memiliki keluarga di luar negeri, sementara aku tidak.. modal awalku hanyalah keberanian dan keakraban dengan teman-teman saja. Jika teman-temanku mendapatkan prangko luar negeri dari paman atau bibinya di Canada, Singapura, Ausi, atau Malaysia, maka aku akan memburu dan mendapatkan prangko bekas dari Monsinyur..

Monsinyur kira-kira wajahnya seperti pastor ini.. Sumber: www.christianpost.co.id

Monsinyur adalah seorang misionaris Belanda di gereja dekat sekolahku, orangnya sangat baik hati. Sebagai orang yang hidup selibat dan tidak menikah, monsinyur tinggal sendirian dan kerap bertukar kabar dari keluarganya yang ada di Belanda melalui surat. Setiap surat yang diterima oleh Monsinyur, akan beliau simpan dengan rapi sampai kami kemudian datang ke wismanya dan merampok seluruh perangkonya, hehe.. Kebaikan hatinya, dan keramahannya sungguh membuatku merasa ‘aman’ dengan bangsa Eropa, dan aku merasa kalo dunia di luar Indonesia mungkin tidak seseram kelihatannya.

Prangko Belanda dari Monsinyur, bagian tengah bergambar hati bisa kita kupas, dan di tengahnya kita bisa menemukan sebuah kata atau tulisan rahasia, unik! Sumber: koleksi foto pribadi.

Oh ya, sampai 2 tahun setelah kami secara rutin menyambangi Monsinyur untuk meminta prangkonya, aku berkenalan dengan ‘inovasi’nya negeri Belanda. Di masa-masa Indonesia masih menggunakan prangko sebagai biaya pengiriman surat (bahkan sampai sekarang), tahun ke-2 itu Monsinyur bercerita kalo dia kemudian tidak akan menerima surat yang berperangko lagi, karena surat-surat yang beliau terima setelah itu menggunakan sistem cap bukti pembayaran sebagai pengganti perangko, lebih praktis dan juga ekonomis.. Itulah kali pertama aku merasa tidak terima dengan inovasi negeri Belanda.. *huks* Innovation, I hate!!

Belanda dan Arsitektur Kotaku

Setelah beranjak dewasa, aku makin mengenal bangsa Belanda berkat pendidikan arsitekturku di ‘kota seribu sungai’ yang bernama Banjarmasin, Kalsel. Bukan main-main, julukan itu diberikan oleh bangsa Belanda sendiri dan tertuang dalam Borneo Zuid Oostkust. Saat itu bangsa Belanda menyusuri 49 sungai di Banjarmasin sekitar bulan Mei-Juli 1847, dan menyebutkan tentang sungai-sungai yang berkelok-kelok dan tembus-menembus satu dengan lainnya.. saking kagumnya mereka, mereka membawa julukan itu ke negerinya, dan menyebut-nyebut Banjarmasin sebagai ‘Venezia dari Timur’.. waahh..

Sebagai Kota Seribu Sungai, sarana dan pra sarana rakyat Banjar zaman dahulu seluruhnya melibatkan air. Sumber: cetak.kompas.com

Sebagai kota yang berada beberapa sentimeter di bawah permukaan laut, Banjarmasin terkenal memiliki karakter tanah rawa gambut yang lunak dan berair, sehingga menjadi sebuah kasus unik tersendiri bagi para ilmuwan Belanda. Dengan pengetahuan tradisional para penduduk Banjar zaman dahulu, maka transportasi pada umumnya dilakukan melalui air. Hal ini menjadi sebuah kendala tersendiri bagi Belanda, karena mereka harus menemukan cara bagaimana membuat jalan raya yang cukup padat di atas rawa-rawa gambut Kalimantan yang ‘susah’ ditaklukkan! (Kan lucu kalau sampai perang melawan Pangeran Antasari memakai perahu dan kemudian kalah karena kecemplung? hehe..)

Apa para meneer Belanda kehabisan akal? Tentu tidak!! Dengan pengetahuan dan penelitiannya yang mendalam tentang penanganan air dan tanah rendah, Belanda akhirnya berhasil membuka jalan dari Banjarmasin menuju kota-kota di sekitarnya dengan membuat 2 kanal yang mengapit jalan raya, sehingga bisa diperoleh jalan raya yang cukup solid di tengah-tengah rawa gambut khas daerah sekitar.. sungguh pemikiran yang inovatif dan cerdas..
Belanda membangun dua kanal yang mengapit satu area, dan memadatkan area tersebut dengan tanah hasil galian 2 kanal tadi; air tersalurkan, tanah padat diperoleh, brilian!! Sumber: sketsa pribadi

Dan masa kolonial itupun dimulai.. 350 tahun masa penjajahan membuat negeri kita cukup akrab dengan Belanda, salah satunya pastinya dalam bidang arsitektur.. beberapa istilah Belanda bahkan masih dipakai dalam istilah bangunan, sebut saja: bouvenlicht, rooster, daag, bouwheer, bahkan aanwijzing. Di masa perkuliahan, kami belajar macam-macam hal, mulai dari jenis pondasi sampai sambungan kayu, juga jenis atap dari referensi bangsa Belanda selama berada di Indonesia. Satu hal yang sangat jelas, Belanda benar-benar tidak tunduk pada permasalahan apapun yang mereka temukan di lapangan.. otak mereka yang cerdas siap dengan segudang inovasi dan solusi hebat yang menjadikan mereka unggul dari segi arsitektur bangunan maupun kota, dan kami beruntung bisa menikmati langsung beberapa di antaranya, contohnya yang satu ini..

Lapangan Murjani, di pusat kota Banjarbaru.. Sumber: koleksi foto pribadi

Di pusat kota Banjarbaru ada sebuah taman yang bernama Van der Fielj, diambil dari nama seorang arsitek terkenal Belanda Van der Veilj yang turut membangun kota Banjarbaru. Di seberang taman Van der Fielj, kita bisa melihat gedung kantor walikota Banjarbaru dan beberapa gedung tua berarsitektur khas Belanda lainnya.. Kenapa sekilas gedung ini mirip dengan Gedung Sate Bandung? Karena prinsipnya sama..! Arsitektur gedung dirancang untuk ‘tanggap’ terhadap iklim tropis setempat, alias iklim tropis Indonesia. Atap gedung dirancang dengan kemiringan tertentu untuk menghantarkan air hujan yang curahnya cukup tinggi; sementara teritisan serta sun shading yang berderet di tiap-tiap pintu dan jendela menjadi jawaban bernilai A+ dari permasalahan sinar matahari Indonesia yang intensitasnya cukup besar.. Isn’t it smart?

Belajarlah dari Pendidikan Belanda

Karenanya sudah ga perlu diulang-ulang lagi, kalau pendidikan di universitas Belanda memang wajar mendapatkan 4 jempol.. Jebolan-jebolan universitas Belanda terbukti telah memberi sumbangsih yang sangat besar bagi perkembangan teknologi di Belanda dan juga di dunia. Sebut saja Bapak Link textRem Koolhas dan karya-karya arsitekturnya di Chicago atau Portugal, Herman Thomas Karsten di Jokjakarta, Prof. Ir. Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker di Bandung, serta arsitek muda Koen Olthuis yang mengusung konsep perumahan di atas air di Belanda sendiri (juga bandara di atas air, bayangkan).. Atau yang paling terkenal deh: sumbangsih proyek antibanjir deltaworks yang telah terbukti mampu membuat Belanda maju seperti sekarang ini..

Aku sendiri cukup terkagum-kagum dengan 2 universitas berbasis teknik TU Delft dan juga IHS Rotterdam. TU Delft seperti kita tahu, memiliki nama besar karena jebolan-jebolan mahasiswa tekniknya terbukti telah menghasilkan karya-karya inovatif yang sangat mencerahkan dalam menjawab seluruh permasalahan-permasalahan dunia. Sebut saja Floating City IJmeer (near Amsterdam) dan Floating Road di dekat Den Bosch.

Sementara IHS dengan spesialisasi perencanaan kota membuatku tergiur dengan program-program master dan short course-nya yang tidak hanya melulu teori, melainkan praktek dan terjun langsung ke lapangan. Bayangkan, misalnya kita ditugaskan mengambil salah satu kasus program perencanaan perumahan, maka kita akan diajak pergi langsung ke suatu wilayah yang penataan perumahan yang bermasalah.. yang kumaksud BENAR-BENAR pergi ke sana untuk melihat langsung objek penelitian kita.. wow.. belum lagi aneka seminar/ workshop kampus yang berkolaborasi dengan kampus lain, sehingga memungkinkan kita berbagi pengetahuan dengan negara-negara sekitar Eropa, ck ck ck.. sistem pendidikan yang sungguh berbobot..

Floating road di dekat Den Bosch (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat, 2004). Sumber: ecoboot.nl

Darimana bisa tahu? Makanya harus rajin mengikuti pameran pendidikan yang diadakan NESO setiap tahun, supaya kita bisa bertanya kepada perwakilan universitas-universitas dari Belanda secara langsung.. NESO sendiri adalah organisasi non-profit resmi yang didanai oleh pemerintah Belanda untuk menangani kerjasama internasional di bidang pendidikan tinggi. NESO menawarkan ratusan beasiswa tiap tahunnya. Melalui NESO kita bisa mendapatkan informasi-informasi tentang bagaimana mendapatkan beasiswa dan macam-macam pemberi beasiswa yang tersedia.. Bahkan, dengan interaksi bersama para alumninya, kita juga bisa memperoleh tips-tips untuk mendapatkan beasiswa, atau tips beradaptasi di Belanda nantinya.. Barangkali suatu saat nanti aku bisa mendapatkan Ibu kos yang cantik dan baik hati seperti Oma..

Aahh.. jadi ingin sekolah di Belanda.. tapi upppss.. ternyata bukan cuma aku dan kamu yang punya keinginan belajar di sana.. Bahkan Heinz Frick, seorang arsitek Swiss yang lama bekerja di Indonesia dan telah menyumbangkan 3 jembatan konstruksi kayu lebarnya di wilayah Kalimantan Tengah, pun harus belajar dan mengambil gelar doktornya dari salah satu universitas Belanda UT Eidhoven di tahun 1995; disertasi Pak Frick berjudul Pola Struktural dan Teknik Bangunan di Indonesia. See? Betapa Indonesia dan Belanda sangat terkait?

Dan untuk menambah kekagumanku akan hasil karya para jebolan universitas di Belanda, aku cukup perlu melakukan sedikit browsing dan.. tadaaa!!Hasil kerja mereka bertaburan di mana-mana..

Aquaduk di Belanda. Sumber: infrasite.nl, annage.nl

Kalau kita melewati jembatan, biasanya kita naik mobil di atas, dan air sungai mengalir di bawah kita.. Di Belanda berbeda: kita naik mobil di bawah jembatan, air dan perahu berjalan di atas kita.. wow.. Cara berpikir bangsa Belanda yang brilian membuat mereka tidak menyerah terhadap keadaan apapun yang mereka miliki..

Floating city, di dekat kota Amstredaam. Sumber: tudelft.nl

Dan yan satu ini, mengagumkan ya? Isu kekurangan lahan akan benar-benar terjawab dari teknologi Kota Mengapung ini. Teknologi Floating Cities ini muncul dari hasil Floating City research programme-nya TU Delft yang meneliti aspek-aspek perkembangan kota berbasis lingkungan perairan. Begitulah cara pikir orang Belanda.. Bukannya ‘fighting with’ the water, mereka justru ‘living with’ the water.. Kota yang Mengapung adalah sebuah konsep urbanisasi yang sangat menjawab banyak isu-isu perkembangan pemukiman, dan sanggup memberi ide segar bagi para praktisi di bidang arsitektur dan perencanaan kota. The Floating City ini dikembangkan oleh Deltasync 04, yang beranggotakan para mahasiswa master dan doctoral UT Delft, kuncinya adalah dengan mengaplikasikan ide floating foundation, sehingga rumah atau bangunan tersebut akan berdiri selaras dengan pasang surut air laut.

Masih belum kagum dengan Belanda? Ya sudah, mungkin kamu memang orang Indonesia asli yang berjiwa nasionalis tinggi. Dan kamu boleh berbangga, karena ternyata di masa lalu, Belanda yang belajar dari Indonesia.. ga percaya?

Belanda Belajar dari Indonesia

Nah loh? Ternyata Prof Dr HJ Schophuys, seorang ahli hidrologi asal Belanda (Kompas edisi 7 November 1969) dalam artikelnya menyebutkan pula bahwa masyarakat Indonesia (suku Banjar) sebenarnya telah memiliki kemampuan membuat kanal-kanal untuk kepentingan pertanian pasang-surut secara tradisional. Di masa itu Schophuys justru belajar dari rakyat Banjar, ini kutipannya: ”Mereka mampu membuat saluran air yang panjangnya puluhan kilometer hanya dengan tangan selama bertahun-tahun. Saya juga meniru cara itu 40 tahun lalu untuk membuka lahan di sana.” Wooppss.. Ironis juga ya? Apa kita akan terus memerlukan orang lain untuk membukakan lahan bagi masa depan kita sendiri? Masa lalu mengajarkan kalo yang orang Indonesia butuhkan sebenarnya bukan hanya skill dan pemikiran (karena kita sudah punya), tapi juga seorang guru yang hebat, yang bisa membuka jalan pikiran kita yang tertutup.. dan itulah yang pastinya BISA ditawarkan oleh pendidikan di Belanda..

Ayo sekolah di Belanda..

The World's Ugliest Buildings

2009-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

Retype from http://www.travelan dleisure. com/articles/ the-worlds- ugliest-building s/14/, and http://travel. yahoo.com/ p-interests- 30322161. These are some uhliest buildings in the world.

Seattle and North Korea are just two destinations that play host to earth’s most unseemly architectural monstrosities.

From October 2009 By Bunny Wong
In downtown Portland, OR, stands an imposing 15-story edifice that’s one of the most hated buildings in America. The façade is an off-putting hodgepodge of faux classical columns, strange and useless decorative elements, and penitentiary-like small windows, with a depressing color scheme (throwing in some tacky blue glass for good measure). “It’s all gaudy imagery with no tie to the location,” says Jason Fifield, an associate at Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland. The interior isn’t much better—it’s been described as dark and claustrophobic.

Designed by famed architect Michael Graves, the Portland Building is an icon (for better or worse—mainly worse) of postmodernism, which was a major design trend in the 1980s, when the structure went up, but has since fallen from favor. And that’s a primary reason there’s not much enthusiasm for anything erected in that decade.

But these aren’t the only buildings that spur resentment, and even rage, in those who set eyes on them. Professional and amateur critics alike disparage structures from many eras and in many countries. Of course, different people have different criteria for what makes a structure unappealing. “The ugliest buildings are the anonymous ones,” says Christopher Bonanos, who edits architecture criticism at New York magazine. “Even if an experimental, high-profile building doesn’t quite deliver, at least the architect is trying something. A boring building is a warehouse in the middle of New Jersey.”

For Jason Fifield, what makes a building ugly “is when the design isn’t generated by real reasons but rather by arbitrariness, just for the sake of creating an image.”

To compile our list of the world’s ugliest structures, we consulted with architects and design experts as well as the general public. Pretty much everybody had something to say. For instance, there aren’t many admirers of the spherical houses on long pole “stems” planted, like so many mushrooms, in the Netherlands. (The architect was given free rein courtesy of a Dutch subsidy for experimental housing.) Then there’s the midwestern corporate headquarters that takes the form of a huge picnic basket. Sure, it’s funny from the outside, but probably not for the employees of Longaberger, in Newark, OH, who have to go work in a hamper every day.

Many designs around the world inspire love and hate in equal measure. A prime example would be the glass-and-metal pyramid I. M. Pei designed as a new entrance for the Louvre Museum in the 1990s. “Your pyramid is magnificent,” protagonist Robert Langdon tells a Parisian official in The Da Vinci Code. “A scar on the face of Paris,” the man retorts.

The jury is still out on this kind of building. And to be sure, sometimes a design that’s disdained and misunderstood in its infancy eventually becomes a loved and admired attraction. “In 1959, the Guggenheim honestly looked like it had fallen in from Mars,” points out Bonanos. “Of course, now New Yorkers love it.”

Still, we doubt that any of the buildings on our list will find favor anytime soon.

The Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea
With its concrete sides sloping at sharp 75-degree angles, this stark 1,083-foot-tall, not-quite-finished hotel looks threatening and out of place on the Pyongyang skyline. Its history is odd, too: the country ran out of money for the project in the early 1990s, and it was airbrushed from photos at the time. After a 16-year hiatus, construction began anew last year—that squiggle at the pinnacle is not an ornament, but a crane.

The Ugly Truth: Supposedly the 3,000-room hotel is an attempt to outdo South Korea when it comes to impressive skyscrapers. It’s undoubtedly emblematic of the ruling dictatorship’s hubris.

The Portland Building, Portland, OR
Let’s break out the government-building checklist. Small, boring windows? Check. Humdrum off-white masonry? Yes. Terracotta pilasters and shiny blue glass? That, too. The first three levels of the squat, 15-story municipal-services structure are covered in dark green tiles, adding to the bewildering gaudy-meets-tedious tone.

The Ugly Truth: Michael Graves won a competition to design the building in 1982. Postmodernism was all the rage in the ’80s, which explains the randomly-stuck-on historical motifs. “Many buildings from that decade look fake,” says architect Stephen R. Connors, who has his own firm in Warwick, NY.

The Obelisk, Puerto Maldonado, Peru
In an area that looks straight out of Romancing the Stone—a dusty Peruvian town in the Amazon jungle—Incan ruins might make sense, but not this lumpy lookout, which features a mismatched trio of elements: curved base, futuristic middle, Middle Ages top. “Notice the sculptural elements at the base, crawling up the tower like a fungus,” says Roel Krabbendam, director of design at ABA Architects in Tucson, AZ, who used to live in the town.

The Ugly Truth: The fungus-like stuff highlights the region’s history. Then there’s the view—except tourists can’t see much from the too-short top. “The world is full of these self-celebratory eyesores,” says Krabbendam.

The Ideal Palace, Hauterives, France
Cinderella’s dream digs it’s not, but Le Palais Idéal does bring to mind a fairy tale—the kind one might have visions of after dropping acid. Gargoyles peer out at grottoes with Hindu temples, and tiny mosque-motifs adorn squiggly stone pillars.

The Ugly Truth: In the mid-1800s, Ferdinand Cheval tripped over a stone while delivering mail and was seized with inspiration—his life’s work would be to build a stone château. Over the next three decades, he marked stones while covering his route, returning in the evening with a wheelbarrow to collect them.

The Fang Yuan Building, Shenyang, China
This 25-floor office building, finished in 2001 in the northeastern capital of Liaoning Province, is a weird mishmash of ideas. One is a reference to old Chinese coins, which have square cutouts—just like the structure’s square center. Other parts of the design are like a garden-variety corporate building, with a concrete base and, on the sides, steel rims with glass grooves.

The Ugly Truth: Princeton-educated Taiwanese architect C. Y. Lee, who designed Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest building until last year), wanted to meld East and West. In this creation, urban concrete-and-steel commercial structure meets ancient Chinese currency.

The Experience Music Project, Seattle
Sure, a building dedicated to rock music shouldn’t be too conservative. The problem? In not looking like anything in particular, it appears anchored in nothing. Of course, people have tried to describe it, and have come up with everything from “a multicolored blob” to “open-heart surgery.”

The Ugly Truth: Architect Frank Gehry has said the inspirations for his 140,000-square-foot structure, which opened in 2000, include a smashed guitar and guitars in general, evident in the colors (glimmering purple, powder blue) and metal materials (aluminum, steel). The museum, founded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, is also an example of Gehry’s signature style, made most famous by the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. But according to architect Jason Fifield of Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland, OR, “his work at Bilbao makes much more sense because there’s a connection between the sculptural forms and the surrounding landscape.”

Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) Building, London
It’d be easy for James Bond to hide on that roof: he’d have his pick of hulking concrete slabs, characterless green glass, and jagged rotundas behind which to suavely crouch. (In fact, the ‘80s-wedding-cake-meets-fortress does appear briefly in a few 007 films.)

The Ugly Truth: While designing the intelligence headquarters, which opened in 1995, British architect Terry Farrell had to deal with extensive government requests, like removing windows and adding moats (yes, really). So the many eyesores supposedly exist for safety reasons, with cameras lurking behind every nook and cranny.

National Library, Minsk, Belarus
You can’t really hate this glass-paneled, 23-story rhombicuboctahedron (a solid with 8 triangles and 18 squares), complete with color-changing LEDs to make it sparkle at night. After all, it’s difficult to begrudge a library with such mojo. But the designers should have stopped there. Instead, what’s referred to as “the diamond” sits atop a geometry equation gone wrong—tiered circles, huge triangles, winglike flaps.

The Ugly Truth: The winners of a government-sponsored search, architects Michael Vinogradov and Viktor Kramarenko, were expected to make a statement. The government wanted tourist-attracting drama, a desire that seems to have been fulfilled; the 2006 opening attracted a flurry of attention.

Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, England
Cathedrals like this one, officially named Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, should conjure up thoughts of heavenly repose. But here, congregants look up and imagine getting impaled on those unfriendly spires—that, or they plan their next camping trip, inspired by buttresses that recall a fancy beige tent.

The Ugly Truth: Well, it was the ’60s. Plus, architect Frederick Gibberd was charged with getting the cathedral up on a tight schedule and budget. Result: not long after the 1967 opening, mosaic tiles started popping off, and the roof began leaking.

Longaberger Home Office, Newark, OH
If you worked here, you’d be conducting business in a 9,000-ton copy of a woven-wood basket. Its stucco-over-steel construction was an award-winning feat, apparently; the synthetic plaster received a prize. But it’s as if, in 1997, a giant-size Little Red Riding Hood set down her seven-story hamper on a flat section of Ohio.

The Ugly Truth: True, the company purveys handcrafted baskets. And founder Dave Longaberger’s dream headquarters was a replica of his favorite basket. But hey, Crate & Barrel employees don’t schedule meetings in a 10-story sofa.

Harold Washington Library, Chicago
If buildings came with footnotes, this one, named for a beloved former mayor who deserved better, would have pages worth of citations. Neoclassical references collide with a glass-and-steel Mannerist roof; throw in some red brick, granite, and aluminum—and a bad sense of scale—and you’ve got way too much architecture class for one day.

The Ugly Truth: Opened in 1991 and designed by the firm Hammond, Beeby, and Babka, the Chicago public library has a helter-skelter application of motifs and styles that’s “locked in the postmodern era,” says Peter Koliopoulos of Circle West Architects in Scottsdale, AZ.

Bolwoningen Houses, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
If Lewis Carroll’s Alice wandered into a 1960s sci-fi flick, she might have come across something like these bulbous houses. The residents live inside bizarre-looking bubbles (small ones, at 18 feet across) with UFO-like windows.

The Ugly Truth: In the late 1970s, the Dutch government offered subsidies for experimental housing, and the architect—one Dries Kreijkamp—certainly complied with the directive. The 50 bolwoningen (bol = sphere, woningen = houses) sprouted up in a city that seems to infect artists with a fantastical streak; it’s the hometown of Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th-century painter known for his half-dream, half-nightmare-like renderings.

“The UFO House,” Sanjhih, Taiwan
If visitors had ever arrived at this resort on Taiwan’s north coast, they would have slept in an uncomfortable-looking, spaceship-like pod. As it happens, nothing ever got off the ground at this twice-abandoned project from the 1970s.

The Ugly Truth: Because developers left these four-winged capsules empty for years, information about them is spotty; it seems, however, that the businessman who built the resort in the 1970s wanted it to look like a landing pad for Martians. The Taiwanese government plans to tear down the alien abodes, so see them while you can!

Radar Tower of Tangerang Geophysics Station

2009-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

This is the story about radar tower belongs to BMKG (Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency) in Indonesia. Short of story, this office has many duties on meteorological, climatologic, air quality and geophysical subjects, one among them is in weather forecasting. To make an exact weather forecast, BMKG keeps to afford the best meteorological, climatologic, air quality and geophysical instruments, one of it is the weather radar, and so the supporter tools and infrastructures. In general, BMKG used to have an import radar, this is so important to make the best weather forecast estimation. The radar would be supported by physical infrastructure like radar tower. Well, my blog would be about one of radar tower belongs to BMKG which lied near Tangerang Geophysical Station. It is around DPRD Tangerang Office, West Java, Indonesia. As a technical staff on BMKG, I became one of the aanwizjers (one who gives an explanation about an order) of The Radar Tower Project at The Aanwizjing (job explanation meeting), and my eyes became a bit opened about the project details. This radar tower counted as a complex building, with 4 stories, and 17 meters in height. Its structure is a reinforced concrete, with radar dome at the top.

This building stands next on Tangerang Geophysics Station. Initially, both of the building stood on the back of the other till they are integrated by a lobby in the middle of those two buildings.
Buildings with saddle and shield roof in the right are the existing building and the 4 stories building in the left is the radar tower. In the middle lies the old building private rooms which then being renovated as a lobby. (PS: What happened then is the contractor had to build the lobby afforded by the Tangerang Geophysics Station itself so that the design became so much different than my design, but the radar tower design was built exactly like the drawing). I was trusted to give an explanation and to describe a minimal façade design of The Tangerang Radar Tower. It was Mr. Rinto who gave me just few days to finish the minimal design (PS: It takes a week or more to a house design drawings). Related to the limited times, I’ve got another tower structure design as the reference, but the facade design was adapted to the Station needs. The design then being presented as a model for the candidate clients so that they could estimate the offer cost to the radar building. The shape, the types of structure, the minimal type of material, everything are explained to the candidate clients in details. Substantively, they are allowed to make their own designs so they could get the cheapest offer, but on the contrary they adopted my design, and that is the radar now standing on Tangerang. It looks like the building of radar tower is about to support the radar of Cengkareng Meteorological Station, which has to help on weather data collection of Soekarno-Hatta Airport. When the blog is published, the radar tower itself have been built and used well. At the 4th floor, there are the transmitter and receiver room, and there is a moveable access to the radom as a maintenance tools. But as far as I know, there isn’t any BMKG staff occupying the work station, I predicted that it would be operated by The Cengkareng Meteorological Staff by the shift schedule. I hope that the building could working properly and could become a good sequential for another BMKG radar in Indonesia. By: Lady Clara

The Characteristics of Architecture Students

2009-04-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

Next are the characteristics of Architecture Students (might be The Architects also) whether he/ she is undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral or elses.. Just take a look of them (Source: Safaidin Al-Niam, an Architect Consultan in Texas, USA).
1. ...the alarm clock tells you when to go to sleep (And sometimes we re-arrange the alarm clock if we hadn’t finish yet).
2. ...you're not ashamed of drooling in class anymore, especially in the Structures lecture (Sometimes in Architecture History class).
3. ...you know what super glue and Fevicol taste like. (And you can differentiate between types of adhesives based on their taste.) (Well, it was between a castol and a Fox glue)
4. ...you CELEBRATE space and OBSERVE your birthday.
5. ...coffee and coke are tools, not treats. (also some chocolates, peanuts, crackers, everything that made us still awaken)
6. ...your relatives see you more as a struggling artist than as someone who designs buildings. (and they didn’t know the correlation between them)
7. ...you're not surprised when you see that a new building has materialized in your school overnight. (and a new park, a new room)
8. ...you think it's possible to CREATE space. (yes, it is)
9. ...you've slept more than 20 hours non-stop in a single weekend. (the sleeping times are valuable things)
10. ...you fight with inanimate objects. (and thoughts also)
11. ...you've become excellent at recycling materials when making models. (the coconut waste to be grasses)
12. ...your writing skills are pathetic and your handwriting is worse than a doctor's prescription but your sketching skills are excellant.. (except when the letters are the title of the drawings)
13. ...you've danced with excellent choreography at 3 am and without a single drop of alcohol in your body. (hehe, even after 2 days of sleepless)
14. ...you take notes and messages with a radiograph and color markers. (we forget about the conventional black ink)
15. ...you combine breakfast, lunch and dinner into one single meal. In fact, you consider Ramadan the most convenient month of the year. (and sometimes forget if the meals are our breakfast, lunch or dinner??)
16. ...you see holidays only as extra sleeping time. (and as an extra time to fasten the task to be finished)
17. ...you've got more photographs of buildings than of actual people. (and sometimes the photographs of steels, irons, concretes, cements or sands)
18. ...you've taken your boyfriend (girlfriend) on a date to a construction site. (or to the studio, help us making a model)
19. ...you've realized that French curves are not that exciting. (there are others more intereting)
20. ...you can live without human contact, food or daylight, but if you can't print, it's chaos. (in my case, it was a chaos when our “Rotrings” were broken)
21. ...when you're being shown pictures of a trip, you ask what the human scale is. (yups, the scale is important)
22. ...you can use Photoshop or Corel Draw and make a web page, but you don't know how to use Excel. (hehe, I’d just known Excel after my graduation)
23. ...you refer to great architects (dead or alive) by their first name, as if you knew them, for example for your mail id, room name, sticker in your vehicle, etc. (Frank, Corbu, Mies, Norman, David....... .... etc) (My teacher, Ms. Anna really admires Tadao Ando)
24. ...you buy 500 bucks worth of interior design magazines that you haven't read yet. (yes, just for take a look and get the inspirations)
25. ...you go to earthquake and tsunami-hit areas for site study. (I went to a construction site to have a conversation with the labours)
26. ...you have been frisked thoroughly at airports and questioned rigorously about your roll-pack. (I often suspected of bringing a bazooka on me, hehe)
27. ...your non-architect friends don't get excited when you talk about minimalism anymore. (they don’t even want to talk about it with me)
28. ...sometimes you don't know what the date is because you haven't slept in so long that the days seem to merge together. (hehe.. sometimes we were just considering if it was the time for consultation to the lecturer)
29. ...you refer to engineers as a lower life form. (many as an artist, a philosopher, a labour??)
30. ...you refer to tearing up an A0 size sheet into tiny pieces as scaling down to manageable size. (thanks God there is Autocad also)
31. ...you've used butter sheets, handmade paper, gateway sheets and/or scotch tape to gift-wrap birthday presents. Your architecture friends do the same and your non-architecture friends marvel at your innovativeness. (they said that we are creative person)
32. ...you can identify all the characters from The Fountainhead with people you know. You try to sketch like Roark.
33. ...you've started using blue color pencil for everything, from taking notes to holding up your hair in a knot. (hehe, they are multi-use things)
34. ...your fingers feel itchy when you don't have a pencil on your person. (nowadays, we use Scetch-Up)
35. ...when you do have a pencil, you start sketching on any available surface. (a papers, a tissue, a wall?? Hehe)
36. ...you've fought with the manager of Qwiky's or Coffee Day many times because he wouldn't allow you to take away the table-top you doodled on. (hahaha.. some persons cry for washing their tissues)
37. ...when you get excited, swoon and point at something in a public place, it is often not a member of the opposite sex but a new type of suspended false ceiling or wall dado. (or a new decoration, or a new door technologies, hehe)
38. ...you have, on more than one occasion, experienced fits of pleasure thinking about your dream house. (an exceptional house off course ^^)
39. ...before considering going on a date, you like to see the portfolios of potential dating material.
40. ...you have made a graphical logo of your name.(and ur company logo also)

Anti-Earthquake Construction

2009-04-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sturdy Structure, Light Roof
Indonesia lays on an archipelago area which is wedged by 2 big mountain tracks, The Pacific and The Mediterranean. Those 2 mountain tracks together with the folds, faults, and the cracks have made Indonesia very sensitive to earthquakes. As yet we have been being frightened out of with the earthquakes which are happened to many areas in Indonesia like Bantul, Nias, Bengkulu, Aceh, and Padang which make most of the important building and public infrastructure collapse. The earthquake is the thing we couldn’t avoid, but it would be very wise if we could anticipate the impacts caused by it, especially for our own residential. How an appropriate combination of material and constructions make our house sturdy, not easy to get crash? Earthquakes in the area like Bantul and Nias make hundreds of buildings and houses in disorder. The question is: how could the buildings get too easy to collapse…? All the collapsed houses usually do not have a good structure. These kind of houses are usually made by local laborers who don’t have basic construction knowledges. Then the houses just built with no estimation of inhabitant secure and safety aspects. One of the specific characteristics is the house doesn’t have a good and planned frame. It doesn’t have the column poles, the sloofs (foundation beams) and the ring balks (rigid beams). In common, the houses usually just concrete brick stacks wall without any rigid construction. This kind of construction is able to accept pressure power but it can’t take a draw power. As a consequence, these concrete brick stacks can’t take moments of inertia shocks which have a shape of ground gravitation velocity. Automatically, the meeting of the brick formation cracks, pushed under and then collapses. Buildings in Bantul area don’t have anti-earthquake elements. For example, the house made by concrete brick walls which doesn’t have rigid united pole and beam, it wouldn’t have a rigid frame that prevent shape changing. It is in contrary with the well-structure houses. In essentials, a good house would always have a good structure frame, and what is more, the wall would be as a filler/ coverer and a separator for the outside space to the inside. In order to get a very sturdy one, the filler wall has to be tied to poles, foundation beams, and ring balks. Considering how important the construction strength is, we have to built a good building frame in building a house. Building frame is the combination of foundation together with the beams and balks. The foundation deepness is about 100 cms with a foundation basin ranging about 80 x 80 cms. This standard is enough for one story or two stories houses. On the top of the foundation then a sloof placed as a binder and also as a connector of the foundation to the pole and the wall. Other than supported by the sloof and foundation, building structures are also need to be supported by the poles as building load supporter elements, all at once as wall binder that make the wall don’t get collapse easily. This pole has to be bundled to the foundation sloof, and the top of pole would be bundled to ring balk. This type of structure makes the building sturdy and rigid. The stiffening of sloof make the frame sturdy and it could distribute the building load and the earthquake vibration. A sturdy construction could also made by a good lay out plan. A simple and symmetrical lay out plan would have a better endure power. Symmetrical lay out plan make it easy to put structure system and to apportionment it. The lay out plan has to show the binder column. For example, if the lay out has 12 meters length, than for each 3.5 meters length there will be a column. But that stipulation could be adapted to the frame types, the soil condition, and also the building loads. A compatible construction which is suitable to be applied is the well steel or wood construction. Another choice is the concrete construction. This one is very good to be applied in making a sturdy building, as long as the making processes is right and the materials used in the process is appropriate. Steel construction and structure could also applied to make building process faster; and the steel characteristic itself is able to take pull powers so it could balance the earthquake vibrations. (Translation)
AFTER EARTHQUAKE TIPS:
Checking the Damaged Sections
If we already have a building which has a sturdy and appropriate construction, then the eathquake vibration might still damage some part of the house. To convince ourselves, check these section:
-The Roof Construction Just look at the roof outer and inner. If it is a wood construction, make sure that no wood have cracked or broken. Also make sure that the wood construction position wouldn’t get displacement. If the construction get shift, fix it immediately so that it wouldn’t collapse.
-The Plafond Watch the plafond construction and its cover. Fix immediately the cracked or broken one. The broken plafond could suddenly collapse and fall on other beneath it.
-The Wall This section is also sensitive and has a potential to injure us. Observe if there is a leaning, displacement, or cracked part of the wall. If we find it out, then fix it soon. If the wall is lean, the better way is to scatter it and repair it so it could be standing again. To the cracked part, just watch closely the type of the crack. If it could cause danger, it is better to scatter it and to arrange it all once more.
-The Floor This section has the smaller risk of danger. The damage could be the lightest. The reparation could be done after we fix other part which is more important.
TO TREAT The Easy Break Part of House
The wall and the roof are parts of the building which are easy to get damage. To prevent the damages in these two elements, we may:
-To cope with wall damages: Strenghten the bound between the wall, column, and the balk by setting an anchor between the wall to the column or balk.
-To cope with roof damage: For the roof with wood frame, put the anchor in each frame. Add the restraint by putting a steel plate in each sequels.

Source: Idea Magazine