TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Andra Matin: Contrasting Harmony

JP/P

Andreas D. Arditya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, July 8, 2014

Share This Article

Change Size

Andra Matin: Contrasting Harmony

JP/P. J. Leo

Prominent architect Andra Matin strives to create balance between man-made structures and nature.

'€œI love equilibrium. There should be a balance between the man-made and the God-created structures,'€ Andra said.

The 52-year-old architect said that it was for balance that his main working strokes were geometric forms and straight and bold lines.

'€œNature has its flowing and curving forms. My architectural works complement nature,'€ said Andra, whose real name is Isandra Matin Ahmad.

Contrasting harmony, he said, also produced beautiful and interesting contradictions in his designs.

Andra likes to analogize his designs with jazz or progressive rock songs composed of various movements: quick beats, slow rhythm, soft singing, screams and more.

'€œLike those songs, my designs too are complete packages. They arouse a sense of fear with dark corners in one part, but then they are spacious and open in another. They can make people feel they'€™re outside when actually, they'€™re indoors; or inside when they'€™re outdoors.

'€œI like to include poetic lighting, swishing wind, bird chirps, water sounds and everything that stimulates all the five senses. That is my kind of architecture,'€ Andra says.

One of the projects Andra is currently working on is the renovation of the historical Pos Indonesia building in Kota Tua (Old Town). The post office building '€” which was constructed in 1746 during the Dutch colonial era '€” was in a
state of utter disrepair before being returned to its previous graceful state.

While maintaining the building'€™s original facade and interior structures and design, Andra turned the second story of the building into a modern art gallery.

'€œThe concept it to keep what is original and put new structures side-by-side so as to show the progress and distance that has occurred since the old era and today,'€ he said.

In his revitalization concept, the old Pos Indonesia building is an intact shell for the modern art gallery: a structure within a structure, or as Andra calls it, '€œa box within a box'€.

Andra said the renovation was nowhere near complete and that the next phase of the work would be opening up a part of the roof and installing a garden on the first floor.

The Pos Indonesia building renovation marks the start of a large-scale project by a consortium, which consists of state-owned and private entities, to revitalize 85 buildings within the Old Town over the next five years.

Andra said that his foray into architecture began because of his fear of blood.

After graduating from high school, young Andra wanted to go to university only in Bandung '€” the capital of West Java known as Paris Van Java during the Dutch colonial era and home to several buildings from the Dutch colonial era.

'€œWhen I was a kid, I often spent my school holidays at my grandmother'€™s home in Bandung. My grandfather would take me around on his bike as he ran errands. Half of my heart is in Bandung,'€ Andra said.

Following in his father'€™s footstep, he applied to study fine arts and spatial planning at the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He also applied to study medicine at Padjadjaran University (Unpad) and architecture at Parahyangan Catholic University (Unpar).

'€œI was not accepted at ITB, but I was accepted at Unpad and Unpar. When asked where I would want to go, I told my mom I was afraid of blood. She supported my decision to go to Unpar, although its tuition was more expensive,'€ Andra said.

After graduating in 1988, Andra worked at PT Grahacipta Hadiprana architecture firm in Jakarta from 1990 to 1998, when he decided to establish his own firm Andra Matin Architect in the capital.

As an independent architect, Andra has won numerous awards, including five Indonesian Architects Association (IAI) Awards for, among other things, Le Bo Ye graphic design office in 1999, Gedung Dua8 building in 2002, Conrad wedding chapel in 2008 and Komunitas Salihara complex in 2009.

Andra has become one of the big names in Indonesian contemporary architecture.

'€œWhat I want to see in the future is how Indonesian architects create new designs by combining the modern and historical Indonesian elements and that leap forward,'€ he said.

'€œJust like what our colleagues in contemporary art and fashion have achieved, I want Indonesian architecture to look not into the past and present, but to the future.'€

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.