National Archive building gets Unesco heritage award<\/p>\n
Ida Indawati Khouw, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
There's good news for building conservation efforts in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Despite the lack of attention given to the conservation of
\nhistorical buildings here, the United Nations Educational
\nScientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Asia-Pacific
\nHeritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation has been
\nawarded to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The 2001 Award of Excellence went to the closed Dutch-style
\nGedung Arsip Nasional RI (ANRI), or the National Archive Building
\non Jl. Gajah Mada 111 in West Jakarta, and the award was handed
\nover on Jan. 27. The building won the award from among 15 other
\nconserved buildings in the Asia-Pacific region, such as in
\nAustralia, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the
\nPhilippines.<\/p>\n
\"The building's conservation has been successfully carried out
\ndespite political uncertainty,\" said Unesco's Regional Advisor
\nfor Culture in Asia and the Pacific Richard A. Engelhardt while
\npresenting the award.<\/p>\n
The award was conferred in the courtyard of the 3,300-square-
\nmeter ANRI building complex, which consists of a two-story main
\nbuilding, two pavilions at the north and south wings and a U-
\nshaped building at the west section.<\/p>\n
The award is like a reward for the serious and detailed work
\nof collaborative experts involving architects Han Awal and Budi
\nLim from Indonesia, and Cor Passchier, an experienced Dutch
\nconservationist. Together, they successfully transformed the
\n\"cancer-ridden construction\" into a beautiful museum and
\nmultifunctional building.<\/p>\n
Built in 1760 in the wealthy suburb of Molenvliet, now a busy
\nbusiness district, the building was earlier called de Klerk house
\n-- after its first owner Reynier de Klerk (1710-1980), a governor
\ngeneral during the era of the Dutch trading company VOC
\n(Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) that ruled the Dutch East
\nIndies (which later became Indonesia) between 1619 and 1799.<\/p>\n
Restoration work on the building, the only remaining Dutch
\ncountry house still existing in the area, took place between 1995
\nand 1998 under the initiative of Dutch individuals here as a
\nspecial gift for Indonesia's 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Han, who heads the conservators, said the work began with
\ndetailed surveys of the building's history and construction
\ntechniques. Experts from the Ministry of Education and Culture
\ncollaborated to investigate and advise on the choice of materials
\nto replace old parts.<\/p>\n
\"The idea was to restore the building to its original style
\nbased on the oldest photograph taken in the 1920s that was found
\nat the Tropical Institute in Amsterdam,\" said the senior
\narchitect.<\/p>\n
The mansion underwent many changes resulting from the changes
\nin ownership after the death of de Klerk in 1780. Once, it became
\nan orphanage, then the mining department of the Dutch colonial
\ngovernment office. In 1925 it was restored and converted for use
\nas an archive building.<\/p>\n
When the Indonesian government took over the building after
\nindependence, its function as an archive to preserve the
\ncountry's public records and documents of historical interest was
\ncontinued and enlarged until 1980s when the archive building
\nmoved to South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Since then the building was left vacant and it further
\ndeteriorated, especially during rainy season where the whole back
\ngarden and auxiliary buildings were flooded since most of the
\nsite is lower than ground level.<\/p>\n
\"The walls were damp, the plaster and paint were peeling off
\nwhile the woodwork was infested with white ants. It had become 'a
\ncancer-ridden building',\" said Han.<\/p>\n
Then research was conducted from old photographs and plans
\nfrom the Tropical Institute to determine which parts belonged to
\nthe original building and should stay, and which ones should be
\nremoved.<\/p>\n
Laboratory tests on the building's old components also played
\na great role in determining, for instance, the paint type and
\ncolor, the wall's plaster and other materials.<\/p>\n
\"After the tests we concluded the most suitable paint for the
\narchive building was a water proof kind which is not common in
\nIndonesia. The special paint known as vat was then imported from
\nthe Netherlands,\" Budi Lim said in his paper titled Restorasi
\nGedung ANRI (the Restoration of ANRI Building).<\/p>\n
The windows and doors were then painted in an ox blood color
\nwhile the beautiful baroque carvings were painted in gold.<\/p>\n
Similar treatment was also given to other materials like the
\nroof tiles, floors and the ceramic wall tiles.<\/p>\n
\"We reinstalled the old materials or replaced them with those
\ntaken from other ruined old buildings from the same era. In some
\ninstances we also used replicas,\" said Budi, who now runs his own
\nbusiness in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Dutch glass expert Gerrit Bolwerk even spent weeks
\nexperimenting when reinstalling old window glass.<\/p>\n
\"The surface of the window glass was not flat and we wanted to
\nhave them that way as that is the beauty of old buildings,\" Han
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/national-archive-building-gets-unesco-heritage-award-1447893297",
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