Gedung Merdeka restored as Bandung icon

Gedung Merdeka restored as Bandung icon

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Heads of state from Asian and African countries will meet again
at Bandung's Gedung Merdeka and have time to reminisce during the
commemoration of the 50th golden jubilee of the Asian-African
Summit.

Nothing much has changed since then in the building located at
No. 65, Jl. Asia-Afrika, in the heart of Bandung city.

After being somewhat ignored for almost half a century, the
building has finally been refurbished to welcome the heads of
state and distinguished dignitaries from 107 countries around the
globe on April 23 and April 24.

"Dank, dark, scary and haunted... are my feelings upon
entering the Merdeka Building to cover official functions
organized by the provincial administration, such as the
inauguration of the West Java governor last year," said a
reporter from Pikiran Rakyat local daily, describing how he felt
inside the building before it was renovated.

A similar feeling was also conveyed by people who had visited
the museum, which is a main study tour destination for students
as well as teachers.

A junior high school teacher in north Bandung, Santi Andini,
for instance described the thick dust that had gathered and the
lack of lighting in the museum, not to mention the stench of
urine from the toilets.

"Learning about history shouldn't have to be done in a place
that is dark and spooky. People will lose interest in learning
about the history of the place," she said.

It seems that such complaints will not be voiced anymore. The
museum and the main building have been closed to the public since
Dec. 1, 2004. Renovation work on the building began after the
central government provided a fund of Rp 12 billion (US$1.3
million) for the purpose.

The exterior walls of the building have been whitewashed. The
original shingle roofing which had started to crumble has been
replaced with metal roofing, while the museum's rusty metal sheet
roofing has been replaced with zincalum roofing.

"Nothing much has been changed. It has not changed its
original form," said Martinus Pauran, project manager from Wika
Realty, the company entrusted to complete the renovation work
within 133 days.

Martinus, who is also an architect, said the last renovation
work done on the building was in 1954. He prefers to call the
renovation work revitalization, or bringing back the grandeur the
building enjoyed in its heyday from 1955 to 1965.

Various conferences had been organized at the building in
those times, besides the Asia-Africa Summit. It had once housed
the office of the National Planning Board, the Provisional
People's Consultative Assembly between 1960 to 1965, and hosted
the Asia-Africa Islamic Conference in 1965.

The 6,500-square meter building built on an area of 7,983
square meters consists of three sections. The main building
houses the assembly hall in which conferences and meetings are
held.

It houses a museum in the eastern wing, built in 1980 in
conjunction with the Asia-Africa Conference's 25th anniversary.

Supporting facilities and function rooms are located in the
western wing.

According to Martinus, the renovation will focus on acoustics,
sound control, lighting and air-conditioning, using modern
technology.

The renovators will install around 400 neon lights in the
arched ceiling to brighten the interior. Martinus said that the
most difficult task was to replace the acoustic glass wool
padding in the ceiling.

The building is now fitted with sound-proof material on its
walls and ceiling. The museum will be fitted with 40 neon lights
and more than 100 spotlights to brighten it up. Around Rp 600
million has been spent on renovating the museum, including
replacing a number of displays and frames.

The floors of the main lobby, museum and the front stairways
to the building which originally featured ordinary tiles will be
replaced with the same flooring as the assembly hall, that is,
Carara marble, imported direct from Italy.

"It costs Rp 300,000 per meter and must be ordered directly
from its factory two months ahead," said Martinus.

The installation of the marble floor was done during extensive
renovations carried out by the Dutch-Indies administration from
1920 to 1928, when a large section of the Romanesque-style
building, designed by Van Gallen Last and C.P. Wolff Shoemaker,
was restored.

The existence of the Merdeka Building cannot be separated from
the history of the Dutch colonial administration in Bandung.

Upon completion in 1895, the building was just a simple
structure, similar to a coffee shop, where the European elite,
especially plantation owners and high-ranking military officers
in Bandung would meet.

Bored with their plantations in the north Bandung area,
landlords seeking entertainment would go downtown through Jl.
Braga.

With the increasing number of upper class, affluent Europeans
in need of a place to unwind, the building that was then named
Sociteit Concordia was refurbished over a span of eight years.

After the renovation work was completed in 1928, two main
buildings were built, the Schowberg Building and the Sociteit
Concordia. They were later connected and significant changes were
made to host the first Asia-Africa Conference in 1954.

The Sociteit Concordia was equipped with a main theater in
which social gatherings and arts performances were held,
including the famous Tonil Braga show, which frequently staged
its performances in the building.

The building was also furnished with a banquet hall and a
billiard parlor. Fine-quality Italian marble flooring was laid,
while function rooms were furnished with first rate wood and
crystal chandeliers.

The function of the building shifted with the change in
colonial administrations. During the Japanese occupation from
1942 to 1945, the building was used as a cultural center and
named Dai Toa Kaikan.

But the Japanese only used it for arts performances,
gatherings and recreation.

During the country's fight for independence from 1946 to 1950,
the building was used as the headquarters of freedom fighters.

The building was used as the office of the Bandung
municipality from December 1945 to March 1946, when the city was
divided into two sections divided by railway lines. The northern
part was administered by the Allied Forces and the southern part
by the Indonesian government.

First president Sukarno changed its name from Sociteit
Concordia to Gedung Merdeka on April 17, 1955, less than a week
prior to the inauguration of the Asia-Africa Summit.

The building is now under the management of the West Java
provincial administration and still being used as the secretariat
for the Research and Study Center for Asian-African and
Developing Countries by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Concordia is just one of a number of buildings in Bandung
designed by renowned architect Shoemaker who was a professor at
the Technische Hogeschool, now the Bandung Institute of
Technology.

His other creations that can still be seen are Hotel Preanger
on the corner of Jl. Asia-Afrika and Jl. Lembong, the Isola
residence on Jl. Setiabudi and the Merah (red) and Sawunggaling
residences near Jl. Tamansari.

However, its testimony to the political alliance between Asian
and African nations is significant compared to the other works of
Shoemaker, when Sukarno delivered the Asian-Africa Summit opening
speech with the theme "Let the new Asia and new Africa be born"
in 1955.