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.