Hotel Indonesia
Consequently many new construction projects have been financed and or- ganised by cther nations. This may be as outright foreign aid given to In- donesia, as a result of a trading agree- ment made between Indonesia and another country, or as a capital in- vestment expected to yield an adequate return. The latter system has been used by Japanese concerns in hotel and department store developments.
Apart from the national problems there are a variety of difficulties within the building industry. Skill and ex- perience of complex projects are in- sufficient; there are only a few hun- dred trained architects in Indonesia, although a few more civil engineers. Workmanship on new buildings, seems to be quite good, perhaps because details are for the most part simple. With good control from the top there is no reason why a sufficient pool of skilled workers could not be provided. However buildings seem to deterio- rate quickly, and maintenance is in- adequate.
Indonesia is short of building ma- terials, and cannot afford to import much. Cement is often of poor quality, and may be adulterated for the sake of profit to a point where it has little strength. Steel for reinforc- ing is very expensive. Many other materials, taken for granted in most countries, are impossible to come by or prohibitively expensive. This of course is part of the economic diffi- culties of this potentially very rich nation at present, and of the break- down of commerce. Corruption and graft also take their toll so that the final cost of even a simple project can be quite out of proportion to its real value.
In spite of these many problems there has been a certain amount of large scale building in recent years. particularly in Djakarta, much of it
Sarinah department store. Right: Window- less facade. Below: Moat and approaches to podium deck
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with assistance from abroad. The cynical say that ‘Indonesia's new con- struction begins with a roundabout and ends with a flyover'; but this is both unfair and untrue. It has its basis in the fact that the majority of the striking new buildings of Djakarta lie on or near a stretch of road which has a roundabout and a new flyover in its length.
Near this flyover is the large site which contains the Asian Games com- plex, the facilities built for the Asian Games when they were held in Dja- karta in 1962. There are a large stadium, swimming baths, covered sports hall, hockey stadium, tennis and basketball courts, laid out in a large park.
The stadium was built with Russian aid, and is unique in that all of its 50,000 seats are covered with a roof which is cantilevered on steel trusses from the main structure behind the seating; it runs uniformly around the whole arena. The stadium is of re-
inforced concrete construction and the
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Far East Architect & Builder April, 1967
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