DPR/MPR building a silent witness

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.