Foreigners leave no room for RI architects

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign architects have dominated the design of buildings in the capital, leaving little scope for locals, an executive of the Indonesian Architecture Scholars' Association said.

Foreigners designed almost 90 percent of the skyscrapers in the city, the association's chairman, Prijono Maruto, said over the weekend.

"They even handled two-story buildings," he said.

Most of the foreigners' works could be seen in the prestigious business area of the city, including Jl. MH Thamrin, Jl. Sudirman and Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Prijono said.

"It's not a problem if they are already well noted in their profession," he said. "The problem here is if they're just amateurs."

"If we let the existing situation continue, all local architects would be laid aside," Prijono said during a press meeting on the preparation of the group's upcoming congress on Nov. 11.

According to Prijono, the goliath role of the nondomestic building designers in the city was due to the lenience of Indonesian regulations on foreign architects.

Most of the overseas architects designed the buildings from their offices abroad without even coming to Indonesia, he said.

They only assigned their local staff or assistants to sign and bring the drawings to the city administration for approval, he was quoted by Antara as saying on Friday.

"It's no wonder that some Indonesians are able to 'handle' about 300 projects in just one year," he said.

Out of about 4,000 Indonesian architects, only 7 percent have the chance to design projects, he said.

"The rest have chosen other professions, such as lecturers and journalists."

According to Erick Leimena, the head of the association's personnel compartment, the mushrooming number of foreign architects in Jakarta was partly due to the strict competition in their homelands.

Moreover, Indonesia's control over them was not as strict as regulations imposed by other countries, such as Singapore and India, Erick said.

In Japan, for instance, foreign designers have to speak the local language first before being permitted to handle projects, he said.

Both Prijono and Erick, however, did not know the precise number of foreign architects looking for money here. (bsr)