DPR/MPR building a silent witness

By Sri Wahyuni

JAKARTA (JP): Over the past 30 years, the People's Consultative Assembly/House of Representatives compound on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta, has been a silent witness to many momentous decisions made by the country's legislators and leaders.

Changes and renovations have been conducted at regular intervals -- the most recent was completed on March 11 last year -- that have transformed what was a relatively modest 8,000- square-meter facility into a grand complex covering 42,000 square meters.

The newest part of the compound is a 24-story tower, the Lokawirasabha Tama building, next to a previously built three- story podium building. The two stand to the left of the main Grahatama building that was built in the 1960s.

Grahatama, with its roof shaped to resemble the wings of a giant bird in flight, dominates the compound. It houses the main assembly hall.

Its unique construction has invited the admiration of many. Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation J.P. Pronk, chairman of the now defunct Inter-Governmental Group for Indonesia, said when he visited Indonesia five years ago that his country should learn architecture from Indonesia.

The history of the buildings dates back to 1965 when then president Sukarno declared that an international organization comprising newly independent and emerging nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America should be established.

The campaign was acknowledged as a counterattack to the United Nations which Sukarno considered was dominated by the U.S. and its Western allies and was insensitive to the aspirations of newly independent countries.

Indonesia, on Sukarno's orders, withdrew its UN membership in January 1965 following the admission of Malaysia, with whom the Jakarta government was at the time embroiled in a political confrontation, into the UN Security Council.

Calling his planned organization the Conference of the New Emerging Forces (Conefo), Sukarno suggested that the first Conefo meeting should be held the following year. This meant that the construction of a huge and imposing building fit for an international organization equivalent to the UN had to be erected in just 12 months.

A team to coordinate the huge project was set up. Architects and civil engineers from prestigious universities and technical colleges in the country and large local construction firms were invited to bid to participate in the project.

The design and construction of the Conefo building were undertaken entirely by Indonesian engineers.

It was two brilliant young engineers Sujudi and Sutami, who were entrusted by Sukarno to design the Conefo building. Sujudi was put in charge of the design while Sutami was entrusted with the construction.

The whole project was supervised by the then minister of public works, Dadang Suprayogi.

The ground-breaking ceremony in April 1965 was witnessed by prominent leaders from other Asian countries, including Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, North Korean Prime Minister Kim Il-sung and Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

The construction work was carried out around the clock, for months on end, by some 27,000 workers who were divided into three shifts. Progress was not easy as there were not enough building materials or heavy equipment available in the country. Even the mixing of concrete had to be done manually.

And worst of all was that Indonesia had to import much of the material needed for the project while having to cope with soaring inflation.

The project would have been accomplished as planned had it not been hastily canceled by the government in the wake of the abortive coup in September 1965 blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.

As a result, the Conefo project was never realized despite the fact that its foundation and frame were ready and the assembly hall was nearing completion.

It was almost a year later that construction of what would have been the Conefo building resumed. The then head of the Cabinet Presidium, Gen. Soeharto, instructed Sutami -- who had been appointed minister of public works -- to continue the project.

However, it was not for Conefo but for the People's Consultative Assembly/House of Representatives. It was first used in March 1967.

Awesome

The 700-square-meter concrete shell roof with a pair of arched beams supporting it in the middle makes the main building look imposing and awesome. Even for experts in developed countries, the architectural work is said to be an almost impossible undertaking.

During it s lifetime Grahatama has been branded an imitation of either the Stadthaus Congress Hall in Berlin or the Raleigh Arena in North Carolina.

Yet a closer looks reveals a major difference between Grahatama and the two other buildings. Grahatama's accidentally chosen shell-shaped roof has no pillar to support it, which is not the case with the German and American buildings.

In his book Structure and Form in Modern Architecture (1993, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.), Curt Siegel wrote that the construction of the Berlin Congress Hall has certain weaknesses, especially with the roof's design -- which is not the case with the Jakarta building.

Now, more than 30 years since its completion, the building has become one of only a few landmarks in the capital.

Supporting facilities -- including the legislators' Lokawirasabha office building, the Ganagraha commission meeting hall, the Grahakarana auditorium, the Pustakaloka library, the Center for Information Studies and Service, a health center, public phone booths and cafeteria -- were added for the legislators' convenience.

The recently completed Lokawirashaba Tama tower cost more than Rp 116 billion (US$48.33 million when the U.S dollar rate was Rp 2,400) of taxpayers' money. The funding came from the state budget between 1993 and 1997.

The construction work was done by Citra-Adhi Joint Operation, a joint venture of PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada owned by President Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana and the state-owned PT Adhi-Karya.

Gubahlaras Arsitek & Perencana PT was in charge of the design of the building. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on Jan. 5, 1994. On March 11, 1997, the tower was officially opened.