The luminous world of Benno Salinas Fevriarto

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): During the daylight, the famed ninth century Prambanan Hindu Temple, some 17 kilometers east of Yogyakarta, has a grandeur and beauty that dazzles people from all over the world.

At night, visitors and passersby can still enjoy its elegance as golden lights shower the complex situated on the Yogyakarta- Solo highway.

As the sun slowly sets and its orange nuance gently fades away, the three main temples begin to be illuminated by lights that transform the stone temple complex into a glittering golden temple against the dark night.

During the full moon that falls between May to October every year, a traditional dance extravaganza of the epic Ramayana is performed in the complex. The candid lighting system lends to the magical atmosphere.

In the Hanoman Obong episode, the modern lighting system improves the visual effects of a dramatic scene in which Hanoman, the king of apes who helps Rama's rescue queen Sinta who is abducted by the evil King Rahwana, is set ablaze.

The man behind this lighting is Benno Salinas Fevriarto, a design consultant with PT GE Lighting Indonesia, whose designs have also beautified several monuments and establishments in several Asian countries, such as South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.

Among his monumental works are Changwon velodrome, Chonju stadium, Misari boat racing arena and one of the world's biggest container ports in Pusan -- all in South Korea -- and hockey stadium in Malaysia.

Benno said that comprehension about history, building structures and their surroundings are important design elements, aside from technical lighting knowledge.

"Lighting is part of the architecture. It's a combination of art and science because lighting is not solely for functional purposes but also for esthetic purposes," said the graduate of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, majoring in architecture.

Lighting serves not only to beautify a particular building but also as a security measure in any project area.

"When working on the Prambanan project, I learned that the crime rate in the complex was relatively high. There had been cases of theft of historical priceless statues. I managed to assure the temple management that the complex needed proper lighting at all times -- even when there was no event there," he said.

The illumination he talked about are four lamps that shine on the main temples and position the remaining smaller temples as elegant silhouettes.

Benno said each project had its own challenge, especially when it comes to esthetic taste.

"Nothing is more flattering than knowing that people like my work," he said, referring to his acclaimed works -- Prambanan and Changon Stadium.

His design of Prambanan Temple lighting led him to the "semifinals" in the 1999 Edison Award, an international contest for lighting design.

His design emphasizes energy efficiency without sacrificing esthetics, security and beauty that passersby can immediately notice.

This was applied in his first lighting project, Gelora Bung Karno, formerly Senayan Sport Stadium, in Central Jakarta in the advent of the 1997 South East Asian Games. His design required the scrapping of around 200 existing lamps to install 92 lamps.

"It was one of my most difficult projects because I was only given two weeks to finish the job," he said, while adding that he usually works alone and the team from GE helps him with the installation.

His latest project was designing the lighting system for the historical Tugu Selamat Datang (welcome statue) monument, at Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta. The statue was erected in 1962 to welcome foreign visitors to the then young independent country.

The lighting project was to give the slowly forgotten statue a nighttime identity among the scintillating lights, sparkling from surrounding skyscrapers and the heavy traffic.

"After securing permission from the city administration, I toured the area to get a better look at the statue, the surroundings and the traffic during peak hours," he explained.

After the survey phase, he came up with a concept of creating a "barricade" around the statue with yellow tone lamps to make it stand out among other lights, without blinding motorists' eyes.

Several lamps were set on 16-meter-high poles and protected with locked casing -- a measure aimed at protecting the lamps against theft or undue damage.

"After all, we all know that the area is a popular place for demonstrations," he said, laughing.

His design for Tugu Selamat Datang was also included in the on going JakArt@2001 program and the official ceremony to inaugurate the new lighting took place on June 29, 2001, attended by representatives from the Jakarta city administration.

Benno has set up his own lighting design firm, Cipta Graha Asana, and was appointed by PT GE Lighting Indonesia as consultant in its "Building Pride with Lighting" program.

The program is the company's contribution to communities where its branch offices are located -- something most welcomed by local administrations as it greatly helps their city beautification program.

As a designer in a country where lighting is yet to be given high priority, Benno pointed out that too many beautiful buildings are yet to have a proper illumination.