Landscape of Diversity

Alur's Landscape of Diversity is finally arrived in Jakarta !!!

The exhibition is arranged by JERIN (Germany Embassy Cultural Quarter in Indonesia) to celebrate the living heritage of batik. The exhibition is mainly focusing on batik collection of Iwan Tirta Foundation. And the aim is to promote the cultural value of Indonesian batik. Alur, a young architects team, joined the exhibition by contributing the element of batik on architecture. The idea is to implement the concept of batik not just on cloth, but on architectural sculpture. Originally, this sculpture is part of the Indonesian Embassy of UK project for the Architectural Biennale in London (http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=111&name=indonesia_landscape_of_diversity). Although there was a bit of delay of the arrival of the sculpture, we are still happy that it finally landed in National Gallery of Indonesia already. 

And so for the ALUR team; Prama Milyardi, Rizki Nindito, Ardes Perdhana, Olivia Putihrai, Monique Suksmaningsih, dan Kuncara Wicaksana, big cheers to you guys...!!! --harumkan nama Indonesia through architecture and batik culture--

Balinese Sunset

About a week ago I visited Bali with some of my old school friends.. It was for a wedding. I stayed in with 5 girlfriends.. yeah.. that make it sounds like our villa is a girls den, which is true.. It was fun. We've done some girly stuff.., that I haven't done nor enjoy for a very long time. At the beginning, it needs some adjustment. I guess it is because my adrenalin was too high for the activities.. and I just couldn't stay still.. ahhahaha


Bali is very fun .. esp when you can have a lazy afternoon and enjoying sunset with cocktails.. heavenly :)

Faces of Yogyakarta

Other than its artifacts and nature, Yogyakartans fascinated me as well. Yes, I love taking candid photos of people. I love to see their expressions. I think I can create new character for them... and story too... but that will make it fiction. For now, I will just show the pics without wordings. And I know this may not represents  the entire Yogyakartans (as Yogya is a city), but I just like to see humbleness in photos :) And ou I add a pic of a cat too.. ups

Taman Sari, the Hidden Jewel

When I was a child, I have visited Yogyakarta many times. But unfortunately I never come across to the water palace 'Taman Sari'. It's one of the sultan's villas. It was built in the 18th century by a Portuguese architect. The palace is surrounded by water for the sultan and his concubines to bath.

From afar, you can directly recognized the castle by the distinguish feature. It's white in colour with a mix of Mediterranean Europe style and Javanese style. When I got to the ticket counter, I prepared some money, but to my surprise, the ticket costs 3000 rupiah (or 40 cents usd) per person. It's definitely too cheap for an artifact that nice. No wonder they lack of money to maintain the site. But again, if you think about it.. It's Yogyakarta.. a city with lots of interesting artifacts but lacks of marketing for tourism. I can see big potential to make this city to become a tourist destination. The road system is already established with the right ambiance and feeling. It's just need some support from the authority. 

Taman Sari consists of a few parts; the water castle, the mosque with 5 directions of stairs, the ruin of the main palace. In between those sites, we had to walk along the 'kampong' (village houses). This is an interesting view of the humble living in Yogyakarta. Of course this kampong has developed into a tourism focus spaces. We can see most houses on the main street are trying to sell home industry products, such as batik, traditional food, or wayang (shadow puppet). 

Most of the gates and door's size are pretty short, so that whenever somebody wanna pass the gate, they have to bend their body a little bit. This represents respect to others and humble nature.

The sign board consists of 2 languages, French and Dutch, with the circulation direction in English. Diversity yeah.

 The map of the surrounding village aka touristy kampong. As you can see here, the building used to be built on top of a lake. Sadly, there is no water anymore. Conservation anyone???

The Sacred Mount Merapi

The journey in Yogyakarta doesn't stop at Borobudur. On Sunday, I've got the chance to see the sacred mountain 'Merapi'. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia, or maybe in the world too. Recently in 2010, Mount Merapi erupted and cause lots of casualty. My mom told me, the town and village nearby used to be covered with white ashes and dusts. Not anymore though.

I was lucky that by the time I reached Merapi, the thunderstorm stopped. It only left cool weather, which is perfect. The scenery of Mount Merapi was extra ordinary. I still can see the lava route by the volcanoes. Apart from the bad casualties, there is also a story about the 'brave key keeper' of Merapi, called Mbah Maridjan. He's an old man who was trusted to guard the spirit of Merapi. When the Merapi erupted, he decided to stay behind, together with some of his followers. 

His life was taken away by the Merapi at the end. And this Merapi trip is also include to see key keeper's house' ruin. It was quite sad to see result of Merapi eruption. ooo I forget to tell you the meaning of 'Merapi'. It means 'fire'. I guess you know why.

Le Bleu Borobudur

I’m on Chinese New Year’s long weekend.. Yey!!! For this CNY, I spent the time in Magelang, my dad’s home town. It’s been a while for me since the last time I visited Magelang and Yogyakarta. Magelang is located on the North of Yogyakarta. It is a small town with its own charm and of course the marvelous Borobudur.  My aim this time is to see Borobudur at sunrise. 

At 4 am in the morning we woke up and started the walk and hike to the top of Borobudur at 4.30. It was dark. The walk was quite easy; everything was well arranged by the organizer.  We have to pay a bit of extra for the entrance fee, as the official opening hour is at 7 am. It was all worthy. 

The ambiance at the top of Borobudur was very quiet and serene. The silhouettes of the stupas look amazing. At the end, I wasn’t lucky enough to witness the sunrise. Nevertheless, the feeling being up there, surrounded by the stupas and misty ambiance was priceless. Everything there is blue. 

I know.., to wake up at 4 am or even earlier can be a pain. But.. compare to the experience you’ll get.., the pain is nothing. You can have the whole temple for yourself, as there were hardly people there. 

Reflection on Christmas 2011 and New Year 2012

At the beginning I have no agenda for both Christmas and New Year celebration. But suddenly, there were amazing things offered. This was actually my first Christmas and NY in Indonesia since a long time. Normally I celebrate both events with hanging out with friends, exchange gifts, potluck dinner, drink afterwards and games. But this time, my Christmas was pretty unique. 

I went to Tanjung Lesung (located in Banten- near Ujung Kulon and Mount Krakatoa) with my parents, my aunty uncle and my grandma. We were told that Boediono (the VP of Indonesia) is gonna be there. Yeahh.. this is so different with my humble life in Shanghai or London. Out of nowhere, suddenly our car was right behind the VP's group. And the VP group wasn't small at all. It consists of 5 buses, ambulance and lots of military cars. Trust me, it felt great to be escorted by the VP group. All the road was opened for us to pass. Tanjung Lesung that is supposed to be a holiday resort suddenly became full with military. This will include a war ship on the coast too.

 During the dinner, I was introduced to this amazing guy called Tung Desem Waringin. He is a very smart and interesting guy with lots of idea about marketing and public speaking. Yes, apart of being interesting, I didn't know he is famous until I googled him couple of days later. Turns out, he is the guy that creates a money rain in Jakarta few years back. I read about his news when I was in the UK through BBC, and at that time, I thought-- wow, this guy must be very smart, cheap advertisement of his book and image eh... Finally I got his book now... Yeah, I am very curious of his words and theories. 

Then move on to NY... (the week in between is just tooo boring and dragging..-- no holiday at all from the office). My good friends asked me if I have any plan for the NYE. The same with them, I don't. Deliberately, we decided to have a NYE house party at my house. And from nothing to do, suddenly my day became busy with preparing stuffs. I was very lucky to have my friends, because they were so ready with their hands to help out became the co-host. Everything went well, although I have to spent my dinner time alone (yeah, I skipped family dinner :( ..) But I was so happy that night, that I'm able to spent the change of year with the best people. It was beautiful and it was just a great way to celebrate the end and beginning of the year.

Introducing Indonesia

Finally I'm able to blogging again. Been very busy for the past few days. With masterplan class... to design the courtyard 14 in Hadlow. Struggling during the thinking period. Seems that I'm not able to get the idea.. It's over for now. And another thing is about doing my dissertation. Yeah.. I feel like dying.

Ouya.. I haven't introduce my country to you. I'm from Indonesia, tropical country in South East Asia. A nice country with amazing view. Well, off course not my hometown. My hometown is Jakarta, it looks just like any other capital in the world. So, this time around I'm going to introduce the interesting part of Indonesia.

The famous interesting place in Indonesia is Bali.. But I guess you all heard about it already. So, I won't show it here. Have you ever heard about Borobudur? It was one of the seven wonders in the world. But, after the restoration (because of the limited knowledge for restore it), its not one of the seven wonders anymore. It still looks good and stunning though. Definately it's one of the place you should experience it before you die.. hehehhe

The Borobudur Temple complex is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. It is for uncertain age, but thought to have been built between the end of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century AD. For about a century and a half it was the spiritual centre for Buddhism in Java, then it was lost until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century

The structure, composed of 55,000 square metres of lava- rock is erected on a hill in form of a stepped- pyramid of six rectangular storeys, three circular terraces and a central stupa forming the summit. The whole structure is in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha.

Besides being the highes symbol of Buddhism, the Bororbudur stupa is also a replica of the universe. It symbolises the micro- cosmos, which is divided into three levels, in which man's world of desire is influenced by negative impulses; the middle level, the world in which man has control of his negative impulses and use his positive impulses; the highest level, in which the world of man is no longer bounded by physical and worldly ancient desire.

In total, Borobudur represents the ten levels of Boddhisattva's life in which he or she must develop to become a Buddha or an awakened one.