Dari Balai Karangan ke Tawangmangu — Building on Faith
This is a series of events which led our office to design and build a series of classrooms in Indonesia - first in Balai Karangan, Kalimantan and then in Tawangmangu, near Surakarta, Java. This is a story worth telling because it describes a journey of faith; our client’s faith in us to provide design ideas and plans, and in their community to provide funding and construction labour.
Our client is Sam and Carol Soukotta, they are the founders of Mount Hope, which is a kindergarten, school, and boarding school in Balai Karangan, Kalimantan, they are also the directors of the Tawangmangu Bible School in Central Java (founded by Carol’s parents, Dal and Dorothy Walker).
THE SCHOOL PROJECT
“We’ll get back to you when we’ve solved the grids - actually, I think our current spacing still works…”
Design meeting with Toni Ponco who coordinates the material procurement, while Craig Pilcher from New Zealand oversees construction on site.
April 2017
Our last few meetings with Toni and Craig have been fruitful; they are our points of contact with the school in Kalimantan. I believe we have a working scheme for the Mount Hope primary school extension. We will go to site over the Gawai holidays to dig the pad footings for the new classrooms, and organise games and events for the children. I briefed our group of volunteers, about 12 of them, and decide to make a simple cardboard to Sam and Carol, who were visiting the school.
June 2017
“This is good; maybe you could do our university extension next.”
We leave Kuching after breakfast and arrive just before lunch – after a round of introductions and lunch, I had the opportunity to brief Sam and Carol about the classroom extension when they drop by to say hello to the volunteers. They seem to understand what we’re aiming to do, and Carol tells me they’ll be in touch to ask for help designing their Bible College in Central Java. I laugh it off (though they seem quite serious about it) and return to my lunch.
We spend the rest of the afternoon digging under the existing primary school building, for new pad footings – the existing timber columns are rotting away and these will be replaced with new concrete ones. The roof structure is retained while the existing timber floor would become the form-work for the new concrete floor.
“We will keep going as long as there is money - we are building on faith, mate."
We are in constant contact with Craig who brief us about site progress. They have volunteers to help with the construction, the parents of some children work on site in lieu of school fees.
THE COLLEGE PROJECT
True to her word, Carol rings us and asks if we are able to design an extension to the Bible College in Tawangmangu. We accept and a few weeks later, she invites us to visit the college to present our scheme to the School Board.
We did not have drawings of the site, so we had to measure the site and its surroundings.
The new building was to fill up the lower corner of the campus, and link up with the adjacent blocks.
They invite us to their home for dinner and tell us that a local architect will be presenting their scheme as well tomorrow and they can’t wait to see our proposal. We finish our dinner and dessert a little quicker.
Much later that night - Leong, “Add in some more coniferous trees. L: [quietly] “I’m… not sure what those are.”
January 2018
7 a.m. the next morning - Carol comes knocking, “How is it coming along?”
10 a.m. that morning - The local architect, Handoko presents two schemes versus our one.
Sam voices his support for our scheme, “God spoke to me…”
The local architect, Handoko would assist in the submission to authorities and coordinate with the local builder, Budiman. Communication was sporadic, there is often no communication as we got busy with our work and university assignments.
Then one day, about 18 months later - the college extension is completed.
Ground floor plan
Section 1
Artist’s impression of the college
In hindsight, it is a simple project - 3-storey with a sub-basement with only essential details to simplify the communication between us and the local team, and to reduce unnecessary cost. It did not earn us any fees, but taught us a wealth of lessons about community, responsibility and commitment. Furthermore, it allowed us to leave a physical legacy in the form of two buildings in Indonesia.
The people of Mount Hope – It did not earn us any fees, but taught us a wealth of lessons about community, responsibility and commitment
It also allowed us to leave a physical legacy in the form of two buildings in Indonesia
TEAM CREDITS
Project Team : Leong Gian Wen | Wee Hii Min | Sean Wee | Lionel Kueh
Clients : Sam and Carol Soukotta
Local Architect : Handoko Kwee
Local Builder : Budiman Tanudjaja