Full transcript of “03 Bung Karno: Sang Pionir Arsitek Indonesia”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 [Music] Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh after previously traveling to Egypt and then India this time we will learn wisdom from the architect of our own nation, namely Bung Karno if not all of us know the two previous figures that we discussed, namely imhoted and Ustadz Ahmad lahory this time I think we all know Engineer Soekarno although perhaps more familiar as the proclaimer of the independence of the Republic of
0:47 Indonesia even though Bung Karno is also known as an architect and as an architect Bung Karno is one of the Pioneers in Indonesia well this time we will try to explore Engineer Soekarno as an architect and try to draw lessons and wisdom from the life of Bung Karno we believe that there are many that we can take from this figure a figure who has many attributes besides the first president of the Republic of Indonesia great leader of the revolution proclaimer of independence
1:32 freedom fighter excavator of Pancasila and a series of other attributes [Music] if the discussion of architects in hotels and architects Ustadz Ahmad lahory previously we were hampered by the lack of materials and information about them So for our architect this time Bung Karno on the other hand related materials Bung Karno Karno has many challenges, namely how to choose which ones we will take in connection with our discussion, of course as far as we will discuss Bung Karno from the side of architects and
2:19 architecture from this point the challenge begins to appear because among the many materials that we can access related to Bung Karno, materials related to architects and architecture are a minority, it turns out that there are not many, of course, discussions related to Bung Karno's political philosophy and thoughts dominate the materials that have come to us today, including his Magnum opus, namely under the Banner of the Revolution or his autobiography written by Cindy Adams, the mouthpiece of the people,
3:04 but other writings or references related to Bung Karno's architectural works or thoughts are not easy to find. I found several books or writings of people who discuss Bung Karno as an architect or review his architectural works, but unfortunately the writings are more like expressions of a kind of Bung Karno fan club or like boyband fans writing about their idols, so sorry, sometimes it's too far-fetched to worship Bung Karno as an architect and embed various architectural works as Bung Karno's works haphazardly, even as if all the big projects
3:51 built during Bung Karno's time were Bung Karno's works and then make analyses that seem academic and scientific. even though it is just a mere fiction and assumption what I mean is this Bung Karno is a great man I think most of us agree with that and his services to this nation are invaluable but worshiping architectural works built during Bung Karno's period by blindly attaching credit points to him will make us miss the opportunity to learn something from Bung Karno's architects
4:38 there are writers who mention one of Bung Karno's architectural works is the konevo building which is now the DPR MPR building then all the praise related to the beautiful monumental form which is Bung Karno's idea we do admire Bung Karno and his courage to launch konevo to fight the hegemony of big countries but then calling the konevo building is Bung Karno's work of course offset there is Bung Karno's contribution of course because he did have great attention to lighthouse projects
5:24 like that but yes don't then blindly say that it is Bung Karno's work Poor architect Suyudi who designed the building just like we don't consider Pak Harto the architect of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or Pak SBY the architect of 3 Soekarno Hatta Airports or Pak Jokowi IKN architect moral story is that we need to be more honest in writing or assessing a fact Why is honesty necessary because we can narrate a fact according to our intentions I take the example of the words
6:11 in a book related to Bung Karno which is connected to the main stadium Gelora Bung Karno there is narrated as follows the main stadium Senayan was designed under the direction of Bung Karno with the most advanced technology at that time But even with the modern spirit Bung Karno also included Indonesian culture namely with the presence of typical ancient Javanese ornaments namely Sri Krishna that is the narrative conveyed by the author of the book but with the same information we can also make a narrative as
6:57 follows for example Bung Karno wanted the main stadium Senayan designed with a modern architectural style without any elements of traditional Indonesian architecture at all Bung Karno like Sutan Takdir Alisabana did not want to be bound by Indonesia's past but focused on the future the only element of the past was placed a small ornament of a statue of Sri Rama who was shooting an arrow that was also from the Ramayana story from Indian culture is not our original culture try to differentiate it will feel different the same information will be different if
7:46 the narrative is composed differently even for the case that was earlier it became contradictory With understanding like that we will learn from Bung Karno more honestly especially from Bung Karno's side as an architect hopefully we can take lessons from the architect's side first briefly I will tell the story of Bung Karno's life journey until later he became an architect colleagues Bung Karno was born in Surabaya on June 6, 1901 with the name Kusno sosrodiharjo
8:35 his father was a Javanese nobleman named Raden sukemi sosrodiharjo and his mother was a Balinese nobleman Ida Ayu Nyoman Rai the name Soekarno was given instead of the name Kusno sosrodihardjo Because in his childhood Soekarno was sickly and for Javanese tradition one of the solutions was to change the name Little Soekarno lived with his grandfather Raden haryokromo in Tulungagung then moved to Mojokerto because he followed his father who at that time was a teacher at Insan School Elementary School in Mojokerto
9:22 there also Soekarno initially went to school after that Bung Karno went to school in Surabaya at hbs with the help of his father's friend named this of course colleagues already know HOS Cokroaminoto not only helped to enter school Bung Karno even lived in Cokroaminoto's house in Peneleh Surabaya, friends. After leaving Surabaya in 1921, it means that when he was 20 years old, Bung Karno continued his education in Bandung at the Hogan School PHB
10:10 majoring in Civil Engineering and graduated in 1926. When he was in college, Bung Karno was not a diligent student because his thoughts and heartache were more focused on politics. Bung Karno said, " I'll write it down for a moment, I'll look for it like this." This is not to say that it's in Bung Karno's biography. I still devote too much time to political thinking, so it cannot be expected that I will become a truly brilliant student.
10:57 So with such a confession, it really emphasizes that when he was in college, Bung Karno's concentration was indeed on his nation, thinking about the fate of his nation, so Bung Karno himself was surprised why he could still graduate, especially when considering how Bung Karno was not so strong in the exact sciences, which Bung Karno called my revenge goddess, the term is fun, but drawing architecture for Bung Karno was very interesting and he was very great at this, so when he was in college, Bung Karno was a favorite of his friends in the field of
11:43 study. This is so even though he majored in Civil Engineering, Bung Karno's interest was actually in the field of architecture. The only reason why Bung Karno did not major in architecture was because such a major did not exist in the Dutch East Indies and the closest to architecture was indeed civil engineering and architectural drawing skills and also this artistic soul was recognized by Bung Karno's teachers on campus because of that, among his teachers, namely Professor Wolf Sumaker, a lecturer and architect who taught at the THB
12:31 asked Bung Karno to help in his consulting bureau. But even though he worked for a Dutch company in the bureau of Sumatra, Bung Karno was still Bung Karno with a burning fire in his chest with ideals hanging Among the stars, even to the Professor and his superiors, our architect was not always submissive and obedient. Bung Karno refused to help the Dutch East Indies government project. Professor Bung Karno said this. I refuse to cooperate in order to
13:16 remain free to think and act. If I work with the government secretly, I will help the politics of oppression from them from their regime. Bung Karno from the beginning was a true Patriot architect and when he joined Professor Wolf Sumaker's bureau, there were so many projects that were worked on by Bung Karno Bung Karno was involved in the Priager hotel project, the poor prison residence, and the Regent's official housing, but because of his
14:02 nationalist views, Bung Karno refused other jobs that were of a nature to help the colonial government. Bung Karno showed a firm stance of rejection of imperialism and colonialism, even from an architectural perspective. As I said earlier, a true Patriot architect with an attitude like this, of course, it is easy to guess that Bung Karno's architect or architect career was not as smooth as today's architects. At that time, Bung Karno founded his own architectural bureau. The
14:50 first architectural bureau that Bung Karno founded with his classmate Anwari was also very simple, using the middle room of Bung Karno's house as an office. Bung Karno's condition at that time was very poor, although that did not dampen his always burning spirit. Bung Karno then founded another architectural bureau with his junior, namely Engineer Roseno. Perhaps colleagues know him because Engineer Russeno was later very famous, he was known as the father of Indonesian concrete. Well, at the time of this second bureau,
15:36 which was founded with Engineer Russeno, they divided the tasks. Russeno part of calculating the structure and Bung Karno designed the architecture from the stories that I told above we can conclude that Bung Karno was very skilled in this field of art and drawing adding aesthetics to a building Bung Karno himself defined his work as follows My plans are good, it's not that economical but it's beautiful that's what Bung Karno said so Bung Karno
16:22 carried out his profession running his architectural practice because of his passion he didn't really think about worldly things like money Bung Karno said he didn't involve himself in ordinary matters like that for Bung Karno what was important was idealism Ideology and independence and for that Bung Karno was willing to live in poverty that's Bung Karno's own admission that colleagues can read in the book of the people's mouthpiece in this period there were many works of Bung Karno in the form of
17:08 residential houses some of which we can still find today there is a house on Jalan Gatot Subroto Bandung there is a house in Malabar there is a red Tulip bakery then a house on Jalan Kasim Bandung a house on Jalan Pungkur Jalan Dewi Sartika a house in Palasari and also a house in Pasir Koja Bandung Bung Karno himself said that in When practicing as an architect, it was actually only half-hearted because his soul and mind never stopped fighting for the fate of his nation, Bung Karno was busy writing, establishing a study club, joining a party and
17:57 other political activities because it was related to designing building details and such things that Bung Karno did not have time to do. Bung Karno only arranged the shape and how to make it beautiful. If we need to make a periodization of Bung Karno's architectural practice, then this is the period of activist architects because it seems that Bung Karno was more concentrated on his calling as a Patriot of the Nation, not as an architect. First of all, Bung Karno's busyness in the political world ultimately really stopped the practice of Bung Karno's architectural profession because the activity made him go in and out of
18:45 prison, detained in prison, hated. Where Bung Karno made a very legendary Pledo defense, namely Indonesia Accuses. This happened in 1930, then Bung Karno was moved to Sukamiskin prison, which in fact the drawing was designed by Bung Karno himself when he was still working at the Wolf Sumatra architectural bureau. Bung Karno's political activities did not then die out because of the punishment, therefore the Dutch colonialists felt the need to distance Bung Karno from the colonial people, so Bung Karno was exiled to Ende
19:33 Flores in 1934 and 4 years later he was moved and exiled to Bengkulu but an architect remains an architect when in Bengkulu Bung Karno also had time to demonstrate his skills in the field of architecture Bung Karno was involved in the renovation of the Bengkulu Jamik Mosque and also as an architect for several houses there until 1942 since the Japanese occupation in 1942 Bung Karno was very busy with national issues and world conditions that were being
20:18 hit by World War II until then the time came when Indonesia proclaimed independence in 1945 and Bung Karno became the first President of this newly born country as the number one official in the new country with the various challenges he faced of course we do not expect to find Bung Karno's architect side appearing clearly meaning Bung Karno did not practice as an architect anymore of course although the soul of an architect and art certainly cannot be thrown away because it has been integrated in Bung Karno then Of course it has an effect on How the Presidential Palace is arranged and
21:05 arranged How to choose various furniture and so on even to make a flagpole in the palace Bung Karno gave direction and poured his architect's soul into How the Flagpole is must be made that's why Bung Karno once jokingly said that my first task as president was to design the palace flagpole but of course Bung Karno did not have time to carry out the creative process of an architect as we know it today for example starting from making a design sketch concept developing the design to working drawings is not
21:53 certain Bung Karno did not have much time to do this process perhaps we can understand from this story this story I borrowed from the field of painting to describe the creative process that occurred around Bung Karno at that time this story was told by Dullah Bung Karno's favorite palace painter so one time Bung Karno accompanied by Dullah was at the top of a hill in Kintamani Bali there Bung Karno said Dullah we have to make something to enjoy heaven This is what Bung Karno said because in front of
22:41 them both stretched a truly beautiful view that then answered How about if a Gazebo Saung was made here to enjoy this beautiful view Answer Make a sketch later you leave it to me we Bung Karno Then a few months later the Gazebo was standing that is one illustration of how the creative process occurs until it is realized into a work without Bung Karno's direction the work was not
23:27 realized of course but it is clear Bung Karno did not enter the realm of design, so if the period 1926 to the Proclamation of 1945 Soekarno's architects were in the period of activist architects, then after independence 1945 to 1966 Soekarno's architects were in the period of presidential architects, even though they did not practice architecture as a full-time architect, but the intuition and maturity of Soekarno's architect soul continued to develop, this was also enriched by Bung Karno's travels
24:14 around the world as president. Bung Karno saw architecture in various parts of the world and that opened up the horizon, enriching Bung Karno's architectural vocabulary and then it found its momentum when Bung Karno fought for his idea of a new world order with Jakarta as one of its lighthouses, then various architectural projects were born to support that agenda, we can mention the Hotel Indonesia Monas, Istiqlal Mosque, Konevo Building, Ganefo Stadium and various Monuments
25:02 spread throughout Jakarta and also other cities in Indonesia. Indeed, Bung Karno was not a pure architect in those projects there were architects who worked on those buildings, but Bung Karno's role cannot be ignored in the process. I mean Bung Karno was not just initiated and inaugurated as other officials who were not architects at this point Bung Karno played a bigger role because he had the capacity and capability to direct an architecture colleagues
25:47 at the beginning I criticized the way we praise Bung Karno with architectural works in his time my intention of course is not to belittle Bung Karno's architectural side from my story above colleagues should no longer doubt the quality of Bung Karno as an architect clearly Bung Karno was not a tin can architect we can draw that conclusion from the confession of his professor or from the confession of Dutch East Indies officials who queued to get the services of Soekarno's architectural touch and also from the built works that we can still see until now
26:32 but we do not want to get too caught up in attributing all monumental architectural works at that time were the architectural works of Bung Karno Bung Karno certainly had a role in the realization of those works giving this idea that idea but we also still need to mention other parties who also participated in realizing it this is consistent with what I often say that an architectural work is not a poem or painting that is the work of a single person architecture is a collective work where the architect is one of them no
27:17 matter how important their contribution and in In that context, we position Bung Karno as an architect who was the president of the Republic of Indonesia, just like the American Father Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, who was also an architect who was nicknamed the Father of American National Architecture by his people. Because of his services when he was the leader of Indonesia, Bung Karno was not practicing his profession as an architect, but the character of an architect still had an influence on Bung Karno. Bung Karno said, "The
28:04 rhythm of a revolution is to break down and build, building requires the soul of an architect, that's what Bung Karno said. I want to say that Bung Karno was not the architect for Monas, Istiqlal Mosque, or Hotel Indonesia, but without Bung Karno's involvement, it is not certain that those buildings would have been realized with such architecture. Bung Karno was a strong personal figure, dominant in character and had certain views that he believed in, and coupled with his position as the most powerful person in the Republic at that time, it was easy to
28:51 find a relationship between Bung Karno and the architectural works that were built at that time. It was impossible that there was no involvement and contribution from Bung Karno there. In fact, Bung Karno's involvement in large projects that could be called Nation building projects was very intense both domestically and abroad, such as the construction of the Indonesian Pavilion in The World Fair in 1964 was held in New York, but the level of intensity or level of intention does not automatically make us even consider the work as
29:37 Bung Karno's work, as in the case we discussed the other day, namely, However K Aisar Sah Jihan was involved Intensely in the design and construction of the Taj Mahal, the one recorded as the architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahore Bung Karno did indeed receive a lot of recognition, honorary doctorates, Kausa, and so on, although I think we don't need to be amazed by a series of titles or awards like that because for me, titles like that don't prove anything I respect and appreciate Bung Karno because by reading
30:25 Indonesia Accuses I read Under the Flag of the Revolution or the minutes of BPUPKI and PPKI meetings there Bung Karno demonstrated his extensive knowledge and sharp analysis and extraordinary courage I appreciate Bung Karno because of his role in the struggle of his nation I appreciate Bung Karno Because of his services to Indonesia that coincidentally Bung Karno was an architect on the one hand will provide additional motivation for architects in this country that our first president was an architect and secondly It proves
31:12 my premise all this time that architects have the advantage of being able to think broadly, generalists, but at the same time also being able to master the details of holistic thinking, this helped Bung Karno to think about the overall problems of the nation which was still young at that time but also think about things that are very sharp for example the forms of statues that decorate the capital city space such a narrative may sound normative to some of us but it is clear that Bung Karno really implemented it seriously for example in the case of the construction of the Indonesian Pavilion at the New
32:00 York World Fair Bung Karno gave general directions on how the building was designed which was an embodiment of his speech at the famous UN General Assembly [Music] the team of architects led by RM Sudarsono then translated the idea into an architectural design but Bung Karno continued to monitor intensively at every stage even for the selection of the location Bung Karno himself decided when visiting New York Bung Karno's contribution to architects and
32:47 architecture in Indonesia can also be seen from how Bung Karno helped sow the profession of architect which was still new at the beginning of Indonesian independence at that time so when the confrontation for the liberation of West Irian the architecture lecturers from the Netherlands left so that the architecture students lost their teachers Bung Karno then tried to find teaching staff from various other countries so that these architecture students could complete their studies because of that then in 1958 the first generation of
33:32 architecture graduates from within the country was born which was partly due to the services of Bung Karno Karno then in the period of Bung Karno also born the only architect organization in Indonesia, namely the Indonesian Architects Association where Bung Karno himself as its protector talked about the architect side of Bung Karno I think it is the same when we talk about the other side of this multidimensional human being, which always gives rise to pros and cons and this has actually been indicated by Bung Karno himself in the book of the people's mouthpiece
34:18 there written like this No one in this modern civilization has given rise to so many pros and cons like Soekarno I was cursed like a Bandit and worshipped like a God this is Bung Karno's writing then we who read the architect side of Bung Karno also find the same thing that there are a number of groups who worship Bung Karno as a great architect and embed various analyses that deify Soekarno's architectural works but the undeniable thing is
35:03 that Soekarno's greatness as a human being is not primarily from his architect side but that Bung Karno was a lover of his nation and because of that Bung Karno dedicated his entire life to Mother Earth Where we now live in it colleagues usually at the end of our broadcast will conclude one or two lessons that we can take from the figure we are discussing, especially for Bung Karno. I think we have found a lake of wisdom where we can take whatever we
35:51 want, so I don't pretend to be able to choose one or two that are right for us to learn from. Let's dive into Bung Karno's lake and learn the wisdom from the life of the architect of the Indonesian nation. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh [Music]
