Hadiprana builds on flourishing design career

Hadiprana builds on flourishing design career

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The name of Hendra Hadiprana has until now been
closely associated with interior design and decor in Indonesia.

Besides his modest Galeri Hadiprana on Jl. Falatehan, South
Jakarta, he has designed many interiors of the homes of Jakarta's
rich and famous. A distinctly flamboyant Hadiprana style is
apparent in the houses he decorated.

However, the Jendela (Window) exhibition delineating the
firm's accomplishments to date, on display at Mitra Hadiprana in
Kemang, South Jakarta, shows that his firm has developed into a
diverse and versatile architectural and interior design firm
offering more than just decorating.

After graduating from the Groningen Academy in the Netherlands
in 1957, Hendra Hadiprana along with three staff members
established a firm dealing in interior design and construction.
The country's economic growth during the New Order government was
followed by a building boom, which in turn fostered the
development of Hadiprana's company. It soon incorporated an
architectural design and construction division.

In 1988, the company was formally established as Grahacipta
Hadiprana. Under the direction of Sindhu Hadiprana, the company
adopted a new, professional management system. It employed fresh
and promising graduates in architecture and interior design to
assume the various jobs that the company had to accomplish.
Currently the office is staffed by more than 150 personnel.

Although at the time Hadiprana had already developed his own
style in interior design, he allowed each of his associates to
develop their own design styles. While some projects, such as
Vila Tanah Gajah in Bedulu, about 4 km southeast of Ubud, Bali,
continue to carry Hendra Hadiprana's signature design, the
identity of Hadiprana's firm can now be recognized by the styles
of the firm's young designers.

The new design spirit of the firm comes through, starting with
the design of the Bali Intercontinental Resort in Jimbaran Bay,
Bali (1989-1993). The architecture of the complex, also designed
by a Hadiprana staff member, is relatively simple compared to
Hadiprana's designs of the time. This leads Hendra Hadiprana to
conceptualize an a compatible decorating scheme for the hotel's
interiors.

The lobby is focused on a central element, Ombak Baruna, a
gigantic sculpture symbolizing the waves of the ocean. Even
though Hendra Hadiprana continued to use his favorite paintings
of frivolous Balinese figures to decorate the lobby's ceilings,
the large sculpture as the strong focal element made the rest of
the decor appear subdued. Certainly, Rita Widagdo's modern
sculpture is a wiser choice than the stylized sculpture of three
horses in the Barito Pacific head office.

In interior design, Grahacipta Hadiprana has continued to work
on several hotels, restaurants, office buildings and residences.
The firm's hotel projects include Sheraton Media Hotel, Jakarta,
Citraland Hotel, Semarang, Lippo Sahid Hotel, Lippo Cikarang, and
Horison Hotel, in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In terms of offices, the firm has worked on Bank Niaga, Graha
Kirana, Graha Paramita, Ometraco, and Dharmala Intiland's head
offices, all in Jakarta. Hadiprana's fame in interior design has
been inherited by the firm's numerous young interior designers.

Perhaps the most interesting interior design projects in which
the firm has been involved are two internationally renowned theme
restaurants. Acting as interior design consultants, Hadiprana
collaborated with the Rockwell Group New York on Planet
Hollywood, and with Michael Le Clere and Associates, New York on
Fashion Cafe.

"Of course, they assigned the designer who was most familiar
with the bar scene to handle the cafe projects," joked architect
Kwendeche. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, he arrived in
Jakarta during the construction of Plaza Indonesia, as an
architect of the firm Helmut, Obata, and Kassabaum.

He was recruited by Hadiprana a few years ago to manage
projects that were developed in association with foreign design
firms.

It appears that architecture will become the core activity of
the firm in the future. While the figure of Hendra Hadiprana may
never cease to overshadow the firm's interior designs, Graha
Hadiprana's architecture is bound to emerge through the hands of
four emerging architects.

Heir

Sindhu Hadiprana, heir apparent to Hadiprana's design
enterprise, prides himself on his most recent design, Bumi Asah
in Cisarua. Constructed using many recycled building materials
and set in a relatively tranquil natural environment, this human
resources training and development center offers a simple and
subdued setting for contemplation, meditation and rejuvenation.
The mature design is only to be expected from the senior
principal of the company.

The younger architects are the ones who can afford to
experiment with different design styles. Dedi Kusnadi's Villa
Lina Tannos at Puncak Santika, Bogor, seems to have been used as
a fun project to explore various design possibilities.

Although for the most part the design offers a mediterranean
look, the use of simplistic architectural elements as well as
terracotta roof tiles suggest the influence of Postmodernist
Michael Graves in this scheme. It also seems clear that the
client's tastes dominated the development of this design.

His design for The Legian, near the Petitenget area, north of
Legian, Bali, appears to be more in line with his personal
design style, although it is also reminiscent of Hadiprana's
earlier Bali Intercontinental Resort. Yet the insensitive
monumental scale of this architectural monolith warrants
criticism, especially when compared to the acclaimed Oberoi
nearby, designed by Australian architect Peter Muller.

The monstrous building is rumored to have scared off diners at
neighboring La Lucciola, a serene beachfront Italian restaurant
housed in a simple wood and thatch roof structure. However, taken
out of its environmental context, the design of the hotel itself
is not bad.

Although M. Faried Masdoeki has been the main architect for
the design of Bali Intercontinental Resorts, like Dedi Kusnadi he
has not completely developed a distinct design style. His designs
for Mitra Hadiprana seems promising, but unfortunately are not
followed through with compatible high quality construction.

His willingness to explore different styles has lead him to
develop the designs for the Citra Indah marketing office in
Jonggol, West Java. His interpretation of a colonial building as
delineated in the client's brief lead him to come up with a
variant of what appears like a government building in Calcutta,
complete with a central domed atrium in the center and secondary
domes on each of the buildings' wings.

The most devout follower of modern simplicity in design of the
Hadiprana team of architects is clearly Andra Matin. Trained at
Bandung's University of Parahyangan, this architect, member of
the Young Indonesian Architects Forum, seems to have been heavily
influenced by the design of the so-called New York Five, group of
architects which include Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, Pieter
Eisenman, John Hejduk, and Michael Graves (before he converted
into Post Modernism). This is evident in his design for a house
in Kemang, which could be set anywhere else in the world, even in
New York.

Modern

The influences of the modern masters of architecture can also
be seen in his Graha Paramita, a relatively simple composition of
shapes crowned by a horizontal disk on the very top of the
structure.

This intriguing architectural element was initially meant for
a helipad, but later it was constructed as a satellite dish.
Fortunately, the form was retained. Now this circular form has
become the identifying element of the building on Jl. Casablanca,
South Jakarta.

Andra Matin's designs have become the most distinct among
Hadiprana's other architects, although they are executed in the
universal language of a new international style. Observers can
immediately recognize Matin's touch in such modern projects as
the Datascrip building and BCA's drive-through ATM structure on
Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta.

Nonetheless, we should not forget that the four leading
designers developed the projects in a team effort, still largely
under the guidance of patriarch Hadiprana. When these architects
ultimately work on a project together, they might come up with
something even more exciting, as with their scheme for Bintan
Nusantara Resort on Bintan Island.

To be sure, Hendra Hadiprana is worthy of praise, if not for
his flamboyant interior design, then for his open-mindedness in
letting each of his architectural designers develop their own
design style. This will ensure that Grahacipta Hadiprana will
progress to handle much more than just decorating.