Alvin
March 4th, 2005, 08:06 AM
Jakarta architects reveal extent of boom (24 January 2005)
Abstract: Interviews with principals of top architecture firms reveal a startling boom in Indonesia's building market
Top architecture firms here are reinventing themselves to service an astounding rebound in the property market. The recent spike in demand for architectural services is generally coming from developers servicing elite and lower-middle class consumers.
For wealthy consumers the new architecture will be more functional, intelligent, secure, minimalist and durable than in recent years. New buildings for poorer consumers will be more suitable for local traders, more varied in style and built more quickly. An estimated US$9 billion worth of building starts are scheduled for this year alone, according to BCI Asia research.
Large architecture companies must adapt quickly to maintain their leadership positions against nimble, young firms keen on establishing their own market niches. PT Indomegah Cipta Bangun Citra has turned the market on its head in the last two years by designing big profitable malls funded by pre-construction sales of strata-title shopping space. Its self-funding concept for colourful shopping malls, containing strata-title shops and a hypermarket, is such a hit with developers that it designed 30 of them last year.
"All my projects are the strata mall," said Indomegah's Principal Architect, Henry Kusnadi, with a proud demeanour. "After crisis, projects must produce cash flow."
The 7-square-meter shops, costing about Rp200 million each, sell like hot cakes off the plan to people wanting to get into the retail business provided the surrounding mall is expected to be popular. A staggering example of developers' confidence in this strata-shop market is the commission for Indomegah to design an area for 11,000 shops within the massive Jakarta City Centre in a consortium with architectural giant PT Airmas Asri.
Rapid change in retail architecture is repeated in the residential and office markets. It will be easier for people to work and trade from home in the new towers like Grand Soho in Slipi, designed by PT Sekawan DesignInc Arsitek. This 38-storey tower, that broke ground last November, will contain innovative loft apartments, each with a floor area of about 100 square meters. Offices or show rooms can be set up on the first floor of the apartments, which have an exaggerated spatial perspective because of their two-storey ceiling height. After a day's work, an occupant climbs a set of stairs in the rear of the apartment up to a private living area. Besides reflecting changing work habits, Grand Soho reflects new demands for improved aesthetics, such as a glass facade, as well as security in architecture.
"How you lead people into a building has now completely changed. You need long circulation areas to check vehicles before getting to the entrance," said Sekawan's President Director, Warren Daubney. "We have one tenant that requires that parking is 50 metres away from the building."
Warren has learnt a lot about high security in architecture, particularly when designing the renovation of the Australian Embassy blown up by a car bomb last year. High security in architecture for Jakarta means glass windows are replaced by polycarbonate, blast walls are erected, public plazas are forbidden, entrances are limited, parking is away from the building and electronic surveillance is more sophisticated.
Rising demands for security is just one of the changes that architecture firms must deal with and the history of architecture firms, like Sekawan, reflect the fundamental changes in the market.
"We've come from being an international company in the early 1990s then survived the crisis by doing small projects then to cost-driven projects. Now I have to change our image and business again," he said. "Buyers are looking for a good design, especially at the top end of the market.
"The difference now compared to three years ago is that cost used to be everything," he said. "It was just ridiculous, they weren't really concerned with quality."
New architecture in Jakarta is increasingly quality driven with Sekawan's clients demanding quality designs and materials for projects such as Oakwood Serviced Apartments and Sudirman Office and Apartment Tower. A glance through Sekawan's design book reveals that glass facades and bigger floor plates will be dominant features of Jakarta's future skyscrapers. This trend is clearly revealed in the 60-storey Cyber Estate tower being designed by Sekawan for a site on Jalan Gatot Subroto. This tower (shown left)will have a 2,500 square-metre floor plate and a total floor area of 140,000 square metres. Construction is due to start this year.
http://www.bciasia.com/images/news/Prod/006/n_327006/sekdesinc.jpg
According to PTI Architects' Managing Director, Doddy Tjahjadi, there are more square meters of floor space now under design than ever before in Indonesia, but architects' fees are still depressed.
"The boom is bigger than in '97," he said.
Some architecture firms are prepared to work for fees as low as 1% of a project's value so firms like PTI are very careful about who they work for, accepting only a couple of projects a month from the dozen or so that come their way. Other weaknesses in Indonesia's architectural industry include a lack of discourse on architectural quality and weakness in the law of negligence.
New commissions for PTI Architects include a 5-star resort in Bali for the Singapore-based Banyan Tree hotel group as well as renovation work for several embassies.
PT Airmas Asri's Design Manager, Ardi Jahya, said another major shift in the market was the movement away from European building materials in favour of cheaper materials from China. Other changes, albeit more gradual, included a shift towards modern minimalist designs with less decoration and a rising consciousness on the part of developers about building automation.
Airmas Asri designed Indonesia's tallest building now under construction in conjunction with DP Architects from Singapore. The Peak at Setiabudi will be 48-storeys when it is completed in mid 2006, surpassing BNI tower by two storeys. Interesting projects now being designed by Airmas include a competition-winning design for the 21-storey BCA building, with a two-floor data centre, in Slipi as well as several projects in Malaysia.
The architecture firms mentioned above are among Indonesia's top ten architecture firms, identified by BCI Asia as market leaders. They will receive TOP TEN 2005 awards along with 70 architecture firms at individual awards ceremonies in the capitals of eight key Asian markets. At the same ceremonies, to be held in the first quarter of 2005, 'Patron's Awards' will be bestowed on architectural firms who have excelled in the use of the respective patron's product or building technology. Patron awards are bestowed to architects across the region by world-leading suppliers to the building industry: Autodesk, Hansgrohe, Nippon Paint, Philips and Schindler Lifts. The winners of patrons' awards are listed in informative articles in this section of Architecture Asia. Another patron, Brilliant Building Materials will bestow an award to Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Design (Group) Co Ltd at the ceremony in China.
Abstract: Interviews with principals of top architecture firms reveal a startling boom in Indonesia's building market
Top architecture firms here are reinventing themselves to service an astounding rebound in the property market. The recent spike in demand for architectural services is generally coming from developers servicing elite and lower-middle class consumers.
For wealthy consumers the new architecture will be more functional, intelligent, secure, minimalist and durable than in recent years. New buildings for poorer consumers will be more suitable for local traders, more varied in style and built more quickly. An estimated US$9 billion worth of building starts are scheduled for this year alone, according to BCI Asia research.
Large architecture companies must adapt quickly to maintain their leadership positions against nimble, young firms keen on establishing their own market niches. PT Indomegah Cipta Bangun Citra has turned the market on its head in the last two years by designing big profitable malls funded by pre-construction sales of strata-title shopping space. Its self-funding concept for colourful shopping malls, containing strata-title shops and a hypermarket, is such a hit with developers that it designed 30 of them last year.
"All my projects are the strata mall," said Indomegah's Principal Architect, Henry Kusnadi, with a proud demeanour. "After crisis, projects must produce cash flow."
The 7-square-meter shops, costing about Rp200 million each, sell like hot cakes off the plan to people wanting to get into the retail business provided the surrounding mall is expected to be popular. A staggering example of developers' confidence in this strata-shop market is the commission for Indomegah to design an area for 11,000 shops within the massive Jakarta City Centre in a consortium with architectural giant PT Airmas Asri.
Rapid change in retail architecture is repeated in the residential and office markets. It will be easier for people to work and trade from home in the new towers like Grand Soho in Slipi, designed by PT Sekawan DesignInc Arsitek. This 38-storey tower, that broke ground last November, will contain innovative loft apartments, each with a floor area of about 100 square meters. Offices or show rooms can be set up on the first floor of the apartments, which have an exaggerated spatial perspective because of their two-storey ceiling height. After a day's work, an occupant climbs a set of stairs in the rear of the apartment up to a private living area. Besides reflecting changing work habits, Grand Soho reflects new demands for improved aesthetics, such as a glass facade, as well as security in architecture.
"How you lead people into a building has now completely changed. You need long circulation areas to check vehicles before getting to the entrance," said Sekawan's President Director, Warren Daubney. "We have one tenant that requires that parking is 50 metres away from the building."
Warren has learnt a lot about high security in architecture, particularly when designing the renovation of the Australian Embassy blown up by a car bomb last year. High security in architecture for Jakarta means glass windows are replaced by polycarbonate, blast walls are erected, public plazas are forbidden, entrances are limited, parking is away from the building and electronic surveillance is more sophisticated.
Rising demands for security is just one of the changes that architecture firms must deal with and the history of architecture firms, like Sekawan, reflect the fundamental changes in the market.
"We've come from being an international company in the early 1990s then survived the crisis by doing small projects then to cost-driven projects. Now I have to change our image and business again," he said. "Buyers are looking for a good design, especially at the top end of the market.
"The difference now compared to three years ago is that cost used to be everything," he said. "It was just ridiculous, they weren't really concerned with quality."
New architecture in Jakarta is increasingly quality driven with Sekawan's clients demanding quality designs and materials for projects such as Oakwood Serviced Apartments and Sudirman Office and Apartment Tower. A glance through Sekawan's design book reveals that glass facades and bigger floor plates will be dominant features of Jakarta's future skyscrapers. This trend is clearly revealed in the 60-storey Cyber Estate tower being designed by Sekawan for a site on Jalan Gatot Subroto. This tower (shown left)will have a 2,500 square-metre floor plate and a total floor area of 140,000 square metres. Construction is due to start this year.
http://www.bciasia.com/images/news/Prod/006/n_327006/sekdesinc.jpg
According to PTI Architects' Managing Director, Doddy Tjahjadi, there are more square meters of floor space now under design than ever before in Indonesia, but architects' fees are still depressed.
"The boom is bigger than in '97," he said.
Some architecture firms are prepared to work for fees as low as 1% of a project's value so firms like PTI are very careful about who they work for, accepting only a couple of projects a month from the dozen or so that come their way. Other weaknesses in Indonesia's architectural industry include a lack of discourse on architectural quality and weakness in the law of negligence.
New commissions for PTI Architects include a 5-star resort in Bali for the Singapore-based Banyan Tree hotel group as well as renovation work for several embassies.
PT Airmas Asri's Design Manager, Ardi Jahya, said another major shift in the market was the movement away from European building materials in favour of cheaper materials from China. Other changes, albeit more gradual, included a shift towards modern minimalist designs with less decoration and a rising consciousness on the part of developers about building automation.
Airmas Asri designed Indonesia's tallest building now under construction in conjunction with DP Architects from Singapore. The Peak at Setiabudi will be 48-storeys when it is completed in mid 2006, surpassing BNI tower by two storeys. Interesting projects now being designed by Airmas include a competition-winning design for the 21-storey BCA building, with a two-floor data centre, in Slipi as well as several projects in Malaysia.
The architecture firms mentioned above are among Indonesia's top ten architecture firms, identified by BCI Asia as market leaders. They will receive TOP TEN 2005 awards along with 70 architecture firms at individual awards ceremonies in the capitals of eight key Asian markets. At the same ceremonies, to be held in the first quarter of 2005, 'Patron's Awards' will be bestowed on architectural firms who have excelled in the use of the respective patron's product or building technology. Patron awards are bestowed to architects across the region by world-leading suppliers to the building industry: Autodesk, Hansgrohe, Nippon Paint, Philips and Schindler Lifts. The winners of patrons' awards are listed in informative articles in this section of Architecture Asia. Another patron, Brilliant Building Materials will bestow an award to Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Design (Group) Co Ltd at the ceremony in China.