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View all search resultsBeyond tropical: How Indonesian design is evolving today
Today’s practitioners are responding to a shifting design discourse, shaped by a fast-moving industry, environmental urgency and new ways audiences encounter design and space.
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Urban farming reimagined: Chicken Hero Pavilion, a self-initiated project by RAD+ar, rises as a hilly structure in Urban Forest, South Jakarta, exploring backyard poultry farming as a design response to food waste and urban resilience. (Mario Wibowo/-)
C
lients often approach Antonius Richard, founder of Jakarta-based architecture studio RAD+ar, to design “sustainable” establishments. He would respond back with a simple question: “What do you think about sustainability?” More often than not, the exchange reveals a gap between the ambition and a clear understanding of what that entails.
Established in 2017, RAD+ar (Research Artistic Design + architecture) is a firm known for its climate-responsive design approach in urban settings. The award-winning studio builds prototypes in real conditions, treating climate, shade, wind, solar orientation and humidity as fundamental design tools, and shares its work as part of a broader creative and research practice.
“We are actively shifting the narrative that sustainability must be expensive because it’s not true,” says Antonius. “When we talk about sustainability, it’s often less about design and more about enforcement; how to be more inclusive, how to be more generous to society.”
One of the studio’s talked-about projects is the Chicken Hero Pavilion. Installed as a temporary installation at Urban Forest in South Jakarta, the hilly structure, built using reclaimed bamboo for its green roof, aimed to address Indonesia’s waste problem through the idea of backyard poultry farming.
“The project went viral,” Antonius recalls. “It wasn’t about a chicken coop. It was about showing developers and policymakers that change can happen in small ways and doesn’t have to look ‘sexy.’ At the same time, visual appeal matters, which is why we presented it aesthetically, to prove a point.”
RAD+ar is part of a new generation of practitioners in Indonesia that are expanding the country’s design identity and narrative beyond established frameworks.
Today, sustainability is no longer treated as an afterthought but as a conscious process embedded from the outset. Material exploration is increasingly tested rather than proposed, while collaborations across disciplines are actively pursued.
