Architecture is not for selected few but EVERYONE.

Benteng Tinggi Chapel (Near Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia)

Benteng Tinggi Chapel is located on the eastern part of Indonesia on an idyllic retreat compound up at the foot of the nearby mountain. The existing chapel was destroyed but the foundation remains intact and in good condition. The new chapel is to be built on this existing foundation about 8 meters by 18 meters. There are a caretaker house, an outbuilding, and an outdoor fire place with chimney nearby that eventually will be renovated and converted to an office building and upgraded restrooms. The site is surrounded by predominantly Muslim community, requiring sensitivity in external expression of the chapel to alleviate potential tensions.

The design of the chapel is to express God’s omnipotent and personal characteristics. God is too big for human to comprehend yet He is willing to have personal relationship with them. His omnipotence overwhelms human being through His great powers and wonders that make them feel frightened, small, unworthy or nothing, but on the other hand, He seeks relationships that is comforting, caring and personal in scale. This is the core belief of Christian faith.

To express these characters, forced perspective is used to heighten the experience going through the chapel. Out-of-scale proportion at the entrance is followed by decreasing scale to an intimate setting towards the altar. The triangular post and beam configuration supporting the skylight is the device for forced perspective guiding one’s experience and procession through the chapel culminating at the altar where the cross is located.

The materials used are local. Zinc roof, concrete post and beam, and wood framing are familiar materials for local construction. The post and beam structure are filled with cylindrical bamboo tube squares stacked for exterior walls creating natural cross ventilation common in tropical weather. Secondary structures such as joists, rafters, and roof sheathing are exposed wood.

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News

Architecture for Everyone is part of BCRA Design and Korsmo Construction Design-Build team to deliver the Lowell Elementary School replacement for Tacoma Public Schools.

Ko Wibowo presented Texture Materials for Children at Design for Early Learning Conference in Tacoma, Washington State on Monday, January 22, 2024.

Architecture for Everyone and Johnston Architects began designing the Sumner Library for the Pierce County Library System.

Architecture for Everyone was selected as one of the on-call architects for Seattle Colleges.

Architecture for Everyone was selected as one of four architects for the Child Care Capacity Initiative in Pierce County, Washington State.

Sibert Remodel is currently under construction and nearing completion.

Architecture for Everyone is part of TCF Architecture and Skanska Design-Build team to deliver Bryant Montessori School replacement for Tacoma Public Schools. Ground breaking ceremony was May 10, 2023.

Western Washington University Salish Sea Studio at Fairhaven College is now substantially completed. WWU will install acoustical treatments with the projected opening in May 2024.

Thoughts

Architecture is not for selected few but EVERYONE. The upper 1% can buy with their wealth, the bottom 5% are taken care of by the government. The challenge for each architect is to also serve the middle from the bottom 5% to the upper 1%. That is social justice in architecture.

If Disneyland is to Apple Macintosh in its integrated design, Las Vegas is to IBM PC in its open-source method. But both employ Robert Venturi’s “ugly and ordinary” design approach.

Creativity is to solve design problems, not to creatively force the realization of a heroic design ideal.

We expect our buildings to be flexible and adaptable but fail to recognize that we, humans, are the most adaptable creature. Architecture is heavy and static and, therefore, shall not be expected to be able to be changed too much without significant intervention.

London is historic, Paris is grand, and Basel is organized.

Recent protests on issues of race and inequalities were staged in public spaces: our streets, parks, plazas, bordered by our buildings. While tolerance is built by understanding each other through listening to others, done as individual human beings, the result is a democracy that takes place in public spaces. Our behavior in these spaces defines how successful democracy will be. Thus, the design and quality of these spaces, undoubtedly, influence our behavior. We learned about listening from Slim’s Table by Mitchell Duneier. We learned how we instinctively behave on the street when faced with a perceived danger in Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom by Elijah Anderson. We learned how buildings can contribute negatively to our streets in Fortress L.A. by Mike Davis. We learned how we can collectively contribute to segregation in Community Becomes Uncivilized by Richard Sennett. We learned how we prepare and deal with potential negative experiences on our streets in The Uses of Sidewalk by Jane Jacobs. Now it is time we care about our public spaces and apply what we have learned to design these spaces so democracy can flourish and spread out.

Between three east Asian traditional architecture of China, Korea, and Japan, the most ornate and decorative is Chinese, followed by Korea and Japan being the least. That is why Japanese architecture can accept and adopt the idea of modernism well, especially minimalism.

The greatest gift architects can give our clients is the added value of their design while they live in and the increased property value when they sell. The increased property value would be much more than the assessed value and beyond the fee they paid for. This could be one of the ways to close the wealth gap.