National Archive building gets Unesco heritage award

National Archive building gets Unesco heritage award

Ida Indawati Khouw, Contributor, Jakarta

There's good news for building conservation efforts in
Indonesia.

Despite the lack of attention given to the conservation of
historical buildings here, the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Asia-Pacific
Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation has been
awarded to Indonesia.

The 2001 Award of Excellence went to the closed Dutch-style
Gedung Arsip Nasional RI (ANRI), or the National Archive Building
on Jl. Gajah Mada 111 in West Jakarta, and the award was handed
over on Jan. 27. The building won the award from among 15 other
conserved buildings in the Asia-Pacific region, such as in
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the
Philippines.

"The building's conservation has been successfully carried out
despite political uncertainty," said Unesco's Regional Advisor
for Culture in Asia and the Pacific Richard A. Engelhardt while
presenting the award.

The award was conferred in the courtyard of the 3,300-square-
meter ANRI building complex, which consists of a two-story main
building, two pavilions at the north and south wings and a U-
shaped building at the west section.

The award is like a reward for the serious and detailed work
of collaborative experts involving architects Han Awal and Budi
Lim from Indonesia, and Cor Passchier, an experienced Dutch
conservationist. Together, they successfully transformed the
"cancer-ridden construction" into a beautiful museum and
multifunctional building.

Built in 1760 in the wealthy suburb of Molenvliet, now a busy
business district, the building was earlier called de Klerk house
-- after its first owner Reynier de Klerk (1710-1980), a governor
general during the era of the Dutch trading company VOC
(Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) that ruled the Dutch East
Indies (which later became Indonesia) between 1619 and 1799.

Restoration work on the building, the only remaining Dutch
country house still existing in the area, took place between 1995
and 1998 under the initiative of Dutch individuals here as a
special gift for Indonesia's 50th anniversary.

Han, who heads the conservators, said the work began with
detailed surveys of the building's history and construction
techniques. Experts from the Ministry of Education and Culture
collaborated to investigate and advise on the choice of materials
to replace old parts.

"The idea was to restore the building to its original style
based on the oldest photograph taken in the 1920s that was found
at the Tropical Institute in Amsterdam," said the senior
architect.

The mansion underwent many changes resulting from the changes
in ownership after the death of de Klerk in 1780. Once, it became
an orphanage, then the mining department of the Dutch colonial
government office. In 1925 it was restored and converted for use
as an archive building.

When the Indonesian government took over the building after
independence, its function as an archive to preserve the
country's public records and documents of historical interest was
continued and enlarged until 1980s when the archive building
moved to South Jakarta.

Since then the building was left vacant and it further
deteriorated, especially during rainy season where the whole back
garden and auxiliary buildings were flooded since most of the
site is lower than ground level.

"The walls were damp, the plaster and paint were peeling off
while the woodwork was infested with white ants. It had become 'a
cancer-ridden building'," said Han.

Then research was conducted from old photographs and plans
from the Tropical Institute to determine which parts belonged to
the original building and should stay, and which ones should be
removed.

Laboratory tests on the building's old components also played
a great role in determining, for instance, the paint type and
color, the wall's plaster and other materials.

"After the tests we concluded the most suitable paint for the
archive building was a water proof kind which is not common in
Indonesia. The special paint known as vat was then imported from
the Netherlands," Budi Lim said in his paper titled Restorasi
Gedung ANRI (the Restoration of ANRI Building).

The windows and doors were then painted in an ox blood color
while the beautiful baroque carvings were painted in gold.

Similar treatment was also given to other materials like the
roof tiles, floors and the ceramic wall tiles.

"We reinstalled the old materials or replaced them with those
taken from other ruined old buildings from the same era. In some
instances we also used replicas," said Budi, who now runs his own
business in Singapore.

Dutch glass expert Gerrit Bolwerk even spent weeks
experimenting when reinstalling old window glass.

"The surface of the window glass was not flat and we wanted to
have them that way as that is the beauty of old buildings," Han
said.