Indonesia Architectural Trend in The Coming Years

Aminatun Jahroh (15216056)1, Cherryl S. Zadhine (15216040)2

1,2 Mahasiswa Program Studi Sarjana Arsitektur Institut Teknologi Bandung.

In the recent years, economy-related problems have changed people’s way of living. A plot of land has become unaffordable for most people and natural resources are now limited. The demand for daily needs is increasing to the point where efficiency is profoundly regarded. This global phenomenon has led to a change in architectural trend, especially in developing countries like Indonesia.

Indonesia is a vast country with high number of human resource and opportunities. This circumstance has attracted a lot of investors to invest their holdings in Indonesia and has affected design indirectly within the past few years. The infrastructure and buildings that are built with the support of the investors would consequently follow the wish of these people by which have brought the design tendency of their home country. These days, we could see our capital city and the suburban areas have the typical buildings like the ones in Singapore, Japan and China. Accordingly, BKPM stated that these three countries are the top three investors of Indonesia since 2016 and will possibly remain for years ahead.

In continuation to that, following the way of work of these foreign companies have gradually turned Indonesia from agrarian into industrial country (Suwandi, 2017). As demand of supplies gets higher and rivalry between each company is tougher, there comes the need for everything’s done in an instance. It has influenced a change in people’s lifestyle. They have to be more productive, flexible and ready to work in a competitive environment. This lifestyle makes the requirements for the kind of buildings they needed differs from how it used to be. Advances in science and technology has also contributed to this shift, as natural resources are rare and faster construction time is less expensive, pre-fabrication materials, which are one of many efficient solutions, are getting more popular in the current years.

Overall, the two paragraphs above have briefly explained how architecture is closely related to people’s needs (Nurtjahja, Reza, 2018) like during the renaissance era, cathedrals and city halls in Europe were huge and massively decorated with domes and towers to show the authority of the church or how the traditional Minangkabau culture have made their houses to be large and could accomodate a lot of families. This statement becomes fundamental, because it is undeniable that architecture is for humans and by that it means architectural design will follow the way the people and their environment evolve.

Based on the analysis of the facts and the situation that happens currently, it is predicted that the architectural trend that Indonesia is shifting to is the modern and minimalistic buildings with simpler and less complex design especially for the residential buildings such as houses and apartments by which is highly needed with affordable price.

As the last words, I want to say that the challenges are real. This is the situation that architects have to deal with in the future. It may be beneficial in some ways but there are a lot of doubts regarding this trend. My message for fellow future architects is that, it is our duty to overcome what will happen. Additionally, as stated by Mr Andi Harapan (Associate Director of PT BITA Bina Semesta), ‘we need restrictions in order for us to feel challenged enough and start thinking creatively,’.

23 May 2018 by iplbi