Taman Borobudur

This is one of the project that allow us to deal with a 'non-structural' media. A park that is recognized not by its structure, but rather its nothingness/emptyness as to complement its surroundings. Unfortunately, we only come to the seventh place in this competition held by government's Park Authority.

History shows that initially park was meant for hunting by high class society or landlords, which was later related to one's social status. This has actually shown in Menteng, as our first garden-housing concept in Jakarta. These parks somehow always directly related to its surrounding big houses, that made them 'owned' by those houses, and not by smaller houses that may need more public open space. The question rises on Taman Borobudur; does it have the same problem or character to other parks in Menteng? What does it offer Jakarta?

As a public place, a Park should hold variety of users, from a baby children to the elderly, from businessmen to common people,etc. Leisure or fun, is what commonly drives those people to come to the park, though it may differ to one another. But we prefer to see Fun as a 'breake the rule' concept, that may occur during one's early childhood, teenage, or even adult/old period.

To have fun by 'breaking rules', first we have to break any boundary that separates the park from its users, so every structure surround the park can have the same opportunity to display its 'park-border'. Second, we provide many variety open sport facility which can be viewed from many angle and position inside the park, 'freedom to choose' is the keyword. Third, we called an 'inverted icons', that try to educate people from opposite point of view or reverse psychology. The idea was to make people do whatever they like in the park, without making them felt ruled. The fourth is to make the best of what the site already have. One of the mistake we do for the mid-low class society is creating something that is too 'luxurious' for them to use. Thus, creating 'green tower' from the existing BTS, conserving the old trees, or providing good lightings for bigger trees, may raise the sense of belonging of the park...especially when they also participate in the process.

However, any urban park in Jakarta, should also have its ecological functions, which may prevent and prepare the city from further disaster. That is why we planned to conserve the existing big/dominant trees to help the city absorb the CO2, as well as large open green field to help the city absorbs the water. These functions may have longer effect to be measured, unlike those facilities on the surface that communicate to the people everyday.