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-This text was written as an article to explain my way of practice, as requested by ‘The Singapore Architect’ magazine. Published in 2022, the edition was highlighting several young practices in South-East Asia, that has different approach in their way of working. – 

Since humans created “Nations”, as a form of authority to govern over their life, architecture also affected. The nature of architecture changed and the nature of architect also changed. The nation world created a new condition in architecture, that the world has never experienced before. 

In a world before nations was created, humans lives under the authority of their ethnic group’s way of life. Whether in the forms of kingdoms or tribes, the authority of life and architectural creation lies under the tradition that was created by the ancestors of the community, for over several generations. The architectural knowledge that comes out of this is treated as dogma. A person who knows and understand about this knowledge, is the architect of the community. He can only build the way that is allowed by their tradition. It is a very small chance he can express his architectural preferences and express himself.

Architects during this time is the servant of their community, their ethnic groups. The motive of their work is thick with altruistic value. Being the only people in their community who has this type of knowledge, they have the obligation to use their knowledge to first help the lives of the people in their community. It was their responsibility to think about how the architectural knowledge that they acquire can help elevate the quality of life of their community. It is almost impossible for them to build for people from a different ethnic group, in a different setting than their living space, for their own economical advantage.

In the middle of the 20th century, humankind decided to create “Nation”. A new system of living that provides alternative to kingdom and tribal setting. A third type of authority that allows people to be freed from the conditions brought under the previous two authorities. If life under kingdoms and tribes are being constrained and governed by traditions, then life under nation is relatively liberating. Architecturally as well. 

Architecture changed under “Nation”. A new institution that disseminates architectural knowledge was created. It is called “Architecture School”. A different type of architectural knowledge is now being taught to people who wishes to acquire it. A knowledge that is free from the bound of their ethnic group’s traditions. One that ensures them to be able to create new type of architectures that has never been seen by their ancestors, nor needed by their people. 

For some countries, such as Indonesia, Nation-state creates a new kind of architect. Ones that are independent, and free from the architectural tradition that are created by the ancestors of their ethnic group. And since they are no longer attached to the tradition of their ethnic group, this type of architect now relies on their ability to create architectural aesthetic, architectural comfort and architectural experience to survive. They exchange these set of skill with a sum of reward, from the people who hired them. Kind of a mercantilistic way of life. 

With this new way of practice, the altruistic value of an architect’s practice is thinning. The nature of their practice becomes more individualistic and mercantilistic. This naturally happens because now the survivability of their life is dependent on their ability to create architectural output that are unique to anyone else. So they need to use their time to focus on exploring their architectural knowledge rather than thinking about the solutions of architectural problems in their ethnic group or in the sprawling living spaces that emerges in the nation-era world. 

What I try to do with my practice is to find a line between these two types of practice. A type of practice that is in the right balance between a mercantilistic driven practice and altruistic actions. Perhaps one that can be called as a “Mercantruist” practice?

I think this is needed, because at the moment, in my country, there are problems relating to architecture, that arises because of the changing condition from pre-nation life to nation-era life, and architects can help find the solutions. 

The changing nature of the profession created an architectural ecosystem that needs to be perfected. The contemporary architectural discourse model and publications aspect for a nation architectural ecosystem is something that was unprecedented before. This situation is something that can only be adressed by those who are graduated from nation architecture education. This is why I co-created jongArsitek! (2008-2015); Bintaro Design District (2018- today ); Scriptura Initiative (2019 – today); and Section (2021 – today) 

Through this 4 entities, we tried to contribute with less mercantilistic motives, and tried to provide positive contibution for the architecture/design community.

jongArsitek! was a free online architectural publication that run from 2008-2014. Bintaro Design District is a design-community based event, that was held in a suburban housing area called Bintaro Jaya, where many architects, designers and artists resides; Scriptura Initiative tries to solve the situation that very few good design and architectural books, are translated to Indonesian language. While Section is an attempt to create a non-profit book store for design, art and architecture books. A kind of book store that currently are very-very rare in a nation with 4th highest population on planet Earth, and second in the number of University. 

A different conditions that also needs to be addressed in the nation-era life are the ones that are related with the collective living condition of Indonesians. The quality of many living spaces in Indonesia (cities and non-cities) have been declining in the past few years, again it is due to the changing way of life. We are yet able to come up with a concept of an effective, efficient and healthy living space for a society that changes from agrarian to non-agrarian society. 

This is an issue we, at studiodasar, are currently addressing as well, with the government of a local small city in Indonesia, called Tubaba (Tulang Bawang Barat). Working together, we are helping the city municipality to create a masterplan for an alternative living space dedicated for future younger generation of Indonesians. One that we hope can provide them with a more healthy, effective and efficient living space. This is a special case project. We did not treat this as a commissioned project, thus we didn’t receive an adequate amount of money, that is in decent proportion with our ideas and efforts. There is a survivability aspect to it. One that came from a realisation that if we don’t do this, we might loose the chance to have a better living space than what currently are being offered.          

Given the education that I had, I am still trained as a merchant of architecture. So with my studio, studiodasar, we are still working on commissioned projects. We have done interior works as well as architectural works. And we are still accepting commissioned projects to this day. This is how we are trained to survive life.

In the end, I firmly believe that the work of architects is as much a cultural work as it is a business venture. And being so, we then have a cultural obligations to ensure that the architectural future of our immediate community can be better than our present. And architecture is so much more than the projects we design for those who can pay us