Making a dorm room into a welcoming home

Making a dorm room into a welcoming home

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The client's brief was for a functional, low-cost dorm for his
four employees. Architect Andra Matin took that and turned the
project into unique and comfortable living quarters.

The recently completed dormitory in Bintaro, South Jakarta,
standing on a 400-square-meter plot of land, was constructed on a
tight Rp 29 million budget. The architect was forced to choose
cheap materials like asbestos for the roof (used with full
consideration of health concerns) or traditional woven bamboo
sheets to layer the inner and outer walls.

"Generally, the materials chosen for this project are low cost
and easy to assemble to enable us to construct them easily and
within the budget. We also decided to use a steel structure as
the base for the roof due to financial and time constraints,"
said Andra, who was assisted by Lina Madiyana when designing the
dorm project.

The six-month design phase created a dorm with two separate
sections -- one with four modular rooms and another section
consisting of a shared bathroom and kitchen.

For the roof, asbestos was chosen since the design required an
inclination to allow water to fall off it without the need to set
up a gutter below. The use of other materials would complicate
the roof construction as well as result in greater expense.

Andra also chose steel columns since it provides a far spanned
support, making construction simple and cheap.

The overhanging roof, detached from the walls, was specially
designed to enable proper air circulation even without
insulation. The gap allows heat trapped inside the four bedrooms
during the day to escape.

"There is no need to install an air conditioner because the
fresh breeze from the gap effectively drives the heat out."

Wood and plywood were used for the dorm structure and then it
was layered both from the exterior and the interior with cheap,
traditional woven bamboo sheets called gedek to create the walls.

The walls, which Andra terms "breathing walls" since they
allow air to penetrate the interior, still provide privacy for
the occupants.

"The doors were left unframed to limit spending," Andra said,
explaining that it also gave a minimalist impression.

The base of the dorm is plastered with concrete to avoid wood
and gedek materials direct contactly the soil.

There is also a long pond, stretching along the front part of
the dorm. The simple fish pond, planted with lotus leaves, was
added to create a homey atmosphere while at the same time adding
another natural element -- water -- to the site.

Four narrow, rectangular windows were created on each of the
lower sections of the dorm walls, from which daylight can
penetrate the rooms. When opened they provide ventilation and a
view to the yard.

Upward lighting was set up to provide illumination to the dorm
rooms during the evening and reflect the light back from
thewhite-painted roof.

During the construction phase, the architects maintained most
of the existing trees on the site, including fruit trees like
mango, banana and rambutan as well as other plants commonly found
in a kampong neighborhood.

"Some of these trees were even 'incorporated' into the dorm
structure. We just did a little pruning of the branches to neaten
their shapes a bit," Andra said.

In the flickering light of dusk, the plants create a lovely
silhouette that transforms the dorm's rear wall into a moving
canvas.

The gedek wall was painted white to give the simple dorm a
clean, modern appearance. "White paint was also chosen to balance
the trees and the green surroundings."

Andra also made sure the dorms would not need difficult or
expensive maintenance in the future.

"Just smear the gedek walls with white paint and paint steel
and other materials with special paints. No need to hire
expensive workers to do that," he said.

His design also makes it possible for the owner to develop the
site in the future for a home/office construction in the vacant
plot. Despite the cheap solutions that were provided for the
dorm, Andra said his design was still imperfect and needed
improvement.

"However, I hope this project can prove that a low-budget dorm
should not be reduced to only a functional block that ignores
artistic and health aspects, two important elements for living
quarters," Andra said.