The 1st national young architect exhibition

Background
Over the course of time, there will always be generations that stood higher and speak their mind louder than the rest, to later defining an epoch. Younger generations who are not satisfied with what was given by his time, and wanted to do something to, at least, twist an era , and turn it a bit more interesting and (hopefully) better. This can be planned, or present themselves naturally, without force and without being forced.

For an architectural generation, to voiced out their thoughts into the public realm, is something that is (suppose to be) normal. By doing so, the architects and their architecture will have a place to communicate with a wider audience. Whether it’s audience outside the ordinary audience of architecture and architecture.

An architectural exhibition can be the reflection of a generation’s architectural achievements in a period of time. A reflection that is expected to be a place where later generations can learn, so they are able to embrace what is good, and make critics for what that is supposed to be better. It can also be a statement for those who wanted to offer a different kind of architecture, to what is commonly known by the society. More than that, an architectural exhibition is the most fragile media, where an idea can be communicated to a wider audience, and then became very open and frail to critics.

After 1998

After 1998, there is a fundamental change in the lives of Indonesian people. The fall of a status-quo, leads to an openness and freedom of life that has never been felt during the previous 32 years of reign. Suddenly everybody have the freedom of speech and the freedom to speak their mind. This has led to a more dynamic discourse in any subjects of life. On architecture, the fall of this regime, also meant the end of a narrow regionalism of architectural perspective which was propagated by the regime.

Another important things that happened after 1998 is the rapid progress of technology. After 1998, technology has changed the paradigm of architectural works all over again. Computers and software of all kinds with various different functions, has put drawing tables aside.
Then there’s the Internet, a virtual world that has change the way people communicate. Access to informations becoming really easy, and discourses can then be established easier among architects all over Indonesia. Internet has shorten the distance, and giving a book of unlimited pages to its users.

All this, opens up possibilities for young Indonesian architects who graduated after 1998, to be exposed and try a lot more possibilities than the previous generations. These young architects have the chance to see much more diverse architectural information n a very easy way.  Thus giving them the opportunity to embrace new technology and new design methods, that is giving them the possibility to produce designs that has never been produced by the previous generations.

Architecture Exhibition

With all the reasons above, jongArsitek! then decided to make a national exhibition of the works of young Indonesian architects, who graduated in or after 1998.

We ask for Marco Kusumawijaya, Avianti Armand and Suryono Herlambang to be the curators of this exhibition. They will choose whichever works were deemed able to provide a new perspective, and can inspire a broader audience. This way the general public and architectural public, can see the wide range of discourse from young generations of Indonesian Architects.

[Show as slideshow]

photos by : Anastasia Widyaningsih, Dita Wisnuwardani, and Primaldi Perdana