ENERGY EXPERT

Jimmy Priatman
Chief Architect/Founder, PT. Archi-Metric | Indonesia

Chairman of the Center for Building Energy Study – Petra Christian University and the Principal Architect of PT. Archi-Metric, Jimmy Priatman is the energy efficiency man in Indonesia.

“Energy efficiency is an effective strategy to achieve the objectives of green design because maximising building energy performance significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions and exploitation of fossil fuel.”

Thus, he has been heavily involved in building energy efficient buildings since the 1990s. Some of his major professional projects that reflect his energy-saving concepts include the Graha Pangeran, which uses only 140kwh/m2/year, and the Grha Wonokoyo, which consumes only 88kWh/m2/year.

And Priatman’s efforts in pushing for a greener built environment have been well recognised not only in Indonesia but also across Asia.

Amongst many, he has received the Kalyanakretya Utama Award from the Indonesia President and the Minister of Research and Technology in 2002; the 2002 ASEAN Energy Award for Graha Pangeran as a tested and proven energy efficient high-rise building, as well as the 2006 ASEAN Energy Award for Grha Wonokoyo as the most energy efficient high-rise building in Indonesia and the third in ASEAN.

The fervent advocate, who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Petra Christian University, does his part to increase awareness on the subject by speaking extensively on sustainable energy related topics at seminars and workshops throughout the country.

Of course, green building design is more than increasing building performance through efficient energy consumption; it requires a cohesive and integrated approach. Priatman recognises that although energy efficiency plays a major role, it cannot be the sole consideration for green architecture.

“To minimise the impact of buildings on the environment, energy efficiency must also be paired with other strategies such as water conservation, recycled or reused materials, sustainable site development, and so forth. Green design is a multifaceted challenge, with energy efficiency, in my opinion, being the largest facet.”

“Green building practice can’t be more relevant in Indonesia, where limited energy supply is a continuous problem and evident in occasional blackouts. We have to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel energy by means of energy conservation (using passive systems) and renewable energy, which are the proper solution to achieving both short-term and long-term sustainability.”

He also recognises that, to move things forward in Indonesia, the public must become more aware of the energy situation and the government must be committed to promote sustainable energy endeavours.

“The challenge in Indonesia is the lack of public awareness of this issue, as well as government subsidy for electricity, causing many to take advantage and rely upon the subsidy which in turn increases our dependency on fossil fuel even more. In addition, there is neither subsidy nor reward for implementing energy efficiency, such as installing energy efficient fixtures or on-site renewable energy. The government needs to be proactive in leading citizens towards a culture of sustainability.”

Having said that, Priatman remains positive that the future of green building in Indonesia will be “very promising” because the public is already becoming more aware of global warming and ozone depletion issues.

“Buildings contribute considerably to total energy consumption and people are starting to realise that. This is evident in the newly-formed Green Building Council of Indonesia. Green building practice in Indonesia is still in its nascent state with no other way but to grow.”

© Copyright 2009 FuturArc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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GREEN SPACES ACTIVIST

Marco Kusumawijaya
Architect/Urbanist, Urba Corner
Chair, Jakarta Arts Council | Indonesia

An active defender of Indonesia’s urban public spaces and well-known for his cause, architect and urban planner Marco Kusumawijaya believes “in citizenship and voluntary changes”.

“Citizens’ initiatives are key to effect rooted, sustainable changes, and are the basic strength of a nation.”

Thus, it is no surprise that Kusumawijaya’s grassroots projects targeted at changing Indonesia’s built environment for the better are powered by active citizen action and public participation.

“Imagining Jakarta” is a collaborative project that this current chair of the Jakarta Arts Council has founded in 2007. It is an effort that brings together a group of artists, architects and urban planners seeking alternative presentations of the city’s public realm through the collective’s creative work—encouraging citizen action in rethinking the planning of the public domain in urban Jakarta.

Its intentions are also clearly stated on its blog site (http://imaginingjakarta.wordpress.com): “Imagining Jakarta tries to present into the public sphere personal imaginations about the collective hopes for Jakarta. Imagining Jakarta offers an alternative method to experience Jakarta; one that not only serves as a source of ideas, but also as a space for interdisciplinary dialogues, among writers, artists—graphic designers, photographer, sculptors—and architects, all of them are from the younger generation. Imagining Jakarta believes in the programmatic density (and is against the mere volumetric cramming that ignore diversity), wishes Jakarta to be a ‘city of life’ (and is against the negative power that turns her into a mere ‘city of work’), hopes for her spaces to become creative spaces, considers mobility as social, cultural, and economic rights, and aims for the environmental sustainability as a goal.”

The green map movement in Indonesia, founded by Kusumawijaya in 2001 after he published the first Jakarta Green Map, is also driven by the public, the common people. Green maps point out a community’s natural, cultural and sustainable features such as open areas and green spaces to promote sustainable living, details that are not necessarily marked out in normal maps. For instance, by identifying a previously unknown green trail, it could encourage the community to seek out alternative ways to get from point A to point B. These maps are drawn up based on what the volunteers in each community mark out. Besides publishing three more Jakarta green maps, he has also helped other cities across Indonesia to be green-mapped.

In addition to Kusumawijaya’s active involvement on the ground, his 25-year career has also seen him conducting talks and lecturing widely on the subjects of environmentalism and green building; writing books on urban issues; and participating in policy and consultancy work with governments, national and international agencies. He has also worked with the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) and Urban Poor Linkage (UPLINK) Indonesia to reconstruct villages and rebuild lives in Banda Aceh following the tsunami disaster in 2004.

His unfaltering commitment to sustainable development and urbanism in both professional and personal capacities is likely motivated by his personal mantra to “live in a better city, with everybody else”.

Kusumawijaya hopes to create “better, just and sustainable cities for everybody”, and to do that, change must begin now, and quickly.

“Climate change is present and immediate. Rapid and massive changes are urgently required, at both habitat and habitus level. These changes can only be sustainable if people understand them and take over its ownership.”

Although he foresees there is still a lot to do—and which must be done with a great sense of urgency—on the road to a greener Indonesia, Kusumawijaya remains optimistic as more people are becoming aware through greater discourse in many circles.

“I think we just need to get organised and create spaces for exchanges, build up social capital, and generate know-how among the people to increase the scale and speed of change.”

© Copyright 2009 FuturArc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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THE MAESTRO

Ridwan Kamil
Principal Architect, PT. Urbane Indonesia | Indonesia

Like the legendary Dr Martin Luther King, Ridwan Kamil has a dream.

He dreams of making cities in Indonesia liveable and sustainable with “progressive design, green architecture, good business…and creative economy”, starting with Bandung, where his award-winning practice (Urbane) and grassroots programmes are based.

Like many green-conscious architects in Indonesia, Kamil is disappointed with the way cities in his country are built. “Most of the time cities are developed at a speed and [with an] attitude that ignore the balance with nature and insensitivity to the city’s own sociocultural value. Then I see how nature strikes back. Floods, acute traffic jams, homelessness that generates criminality, etc. Therefore sustainable development and green architecture is not an option. Designing and building our city in a sustainable and green way is a must.”

“I will not stop until this green and sustainable attitude becomes a norm in our way of designing and building our city.”

And it is this higher mission that drives him to be a green advocate, lecturer and writer.

In fact, Kamil has attained a somewhat rock star status in Indonesia. Fervent cheers and loud applause are not uncommon at his talks. He has become quite a familiar face on the conference circuit across his home country and the region, speaking passionately about sustainable building design.

Perhaps his popularity is also due to the fact that he genuinely cares for his community and wants to make a real difference to the people. Kamil started a grassroots organisation called Bandung Creative City Forum (BCCF) in 2008. BCCF aims to transform Bandung into a more liveable, sustainable and competitive city in Asia within the next five years by bringing together creative communities (it has 30 now) to nurture innovative entrepreneurship so as to boost the economy, and also to actively turn the city’s neglected urban spaces into usable and sustainable public spaces.

Considering the myriad issues and urban problems that “the government cannot handle”, such a grand scheme is no easy feat. However, Kamil remains undaunted and hopeful. “Forty percent of our programmes has been achieved without any support from the government; the rest of the programmes are in the negotiation stage with the city and provincial governments.”

“If we succeed, then the Bandung model can be a good example to other cities in Indonesia. It is an example that the civil society movement can really transform the city into a liveable and sustainable future.”

“I believe creativity can help me to be an agent of change.”

And changing cities is not the only thing this 2006 International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year (British Council) wants to do—Kamil wants to transform the way the man on the street, rich or poor, thinks about architecture and design.

He sees two problems with the current status quo—on the one hand, there is the poor who lacks access to good design and resources, while on the other hand, the “newly rich society” with the resources “often dictates architects badly in the design process and business”.

“Therefore, the most difficult thing for me is educating my clients. It needs extra effort and energy.”

In tackling the problem of the poor, Kamil has set up a new arm in his firm called “Urbane Community” to assist poor urban groups help themselves upgrade their neighbourhood into a more liveable one. His practice is currently doing a project called “one village, one playground” in Bandung.

At the other end, in handling “difficult clients” who are wealthy, Kamil has ingeniously created a new way of “in design process called ‘visioning service’”. This service basically comprises a series of three to four meetings with the goal of “upgrading the client’s design taste” and influencing them with research and discussing examples of “best practices on green architecture”.

“All this is done before we start drawing a single line.” And with this ‘visioning service’, Kamil says that 80 percent of his clients have become more open to new ideas and excited about experimental design approaches as well as respectful of green concepts.

Besides enlightening his clients about sustainable and tasteful designs, this busy individual, who is also serving on the boards of several NGOs, is the mastermind designer behind numerous projects—from one of the most high-profile and biggest ones like the Rasuna Epicentrum in Jakarta to more intimate ones such as his own “Bottle House” in Bandung, which he often uses to showcase his green ideas.

Looking ahead, Kamil is confident that the future of green building in Indonesia will flourish.

“We are now at the stage of observing and digesting the issue. I believe in the next five years this will be booming, thanks to the establishment of the Green Building Council of Indonesia that will act as an entity to certify green buildings.”

© Copyright 2009 FuturArc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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