Original subtitles

I am Anthony Burke, and this is Culture By Design.

Join me as we meet contemporary designers from across the region,

embracing deep traditions, local cultures, and the incredible landscapes of Asia

to open our minds and create positive change for a better tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (02:34):

Design is like music. It's a whole orchestra, the paths, the lines, the dashes.

Speaker 3 (02:42):

It's a whole symphony. It has to feel good.

We want to create a world that we wish to live in.

We want to create what we most imagine is the best future.

Speaker 4 (02:54):

Good design is really more about a holistic process

that really measures the people and the planet impact

and arrive at something that you can truly enjoy beyond just a physical product.

Speaker 1 (03:09):

Design

Speaker 5 (03:10):

Is an embodiment of all the arts.

See, design is a process. Design is not the end product.

It is about that sense of life and that deeply interconnected conversation that nature has with itself.

We weren't just making objects, but we were also making solutions for spaces.

This is what I wish for myself in my life. This is what I wish for the world around me.

Speaker 6 (03:36):

It's hard for the artists, but it's also good for the people.

Life without artists, just no words.

Speaker 1 (03:46):

From the bustling streets of Mumbai to the serene villages of Bali,

we'll discover the unique stories that influence design

in every corner of this vibrant part of the world.

Designed more like a small vertical village than a house

by stacking workshops and living spaces and gardens and even a floor for the animals.

Real architecture workshop have created an ambitious idea of

what home in the 21st century might look like,

and they've crammed all of that onto a very modest suburban block

and with a deep commitment to community as well as

the best in passive design principles.

There's a lot going on in this place. So let's see.

I came here today thinking I was going to come and visit your house,

and I've walked into something that I don't even know how to describe.

What is this place?

Speaker 2 (05:06):

This is combination of things alive around us,

things that we love as a family, as a place for learning. We call it in Indonesia,

it's like a Han is like her heritage. It's a place like kind of our own temple.

I think it's, we live it in the daily life.

Speaker 1 (05:28):

It depends what room I walk into, but at one moment

it's a library, then it's a classroom,

then it's a home, then it's an Avery, then it's an animal farm.

Speaker 2 (05:39):

Yes, we started as a place for work

because we need to survive as a family, as a friends,

and we come together to work together in the studio of architecture,

and that's how we start as define it as the place for office and studio life and studio culture.

And then bring it after we to have an archive

and share it to people and do a discussion together and dialogue.

And if we think about it, or it could be a library, the next one.

Okay, we need to place for live. And it's become a house and home.

I think that architect should not tell a story by himself or herself.

They should comprehend the story by others.

And again, then we can form a story, not only one singular story,

but many multiple stories, thousands of stories.

I think architecture is a mission, not only just a business.

Speaker 1 (06:37):

When I stand on the street corner and I look at your building,

I see a very organic and informal kind of expression.

But when I go into your building, I see details and care and design everywhere.

So that informality seems to have no scale at the street or a loose scale at the street,

but a real precision and thoughtfulness at the level of the human touch on the building.

This seems like Ka Scarpa meets Indonesia.

It meets your mind at the human interaction with the architecture. Yes.

Speaker 2 (07:08):

I met with the Carlos Carpa in 2014, and I adore his attention.

I adore his life and his relationship with the craftsman and the workmanship with the workshop and the magical things about that.

But I tell my father about it and he said,

you have it in front of your studio while you go to the famous center to see Scarborough.

And suddenly I just realized, okay, I need to start to listen to the craftsman

and start to organize the vocabulary of the details.

So by doing that, I think I do agree that from the outside, maybe my sense of skills,

I need time to open up myself.

That's why it's so understated and it's so simple.

But by doing inside, you go to the entrance, you see a lot of things coming,

and it's just to start to shake hands.

And I think in our set, we just need to be honest with our process that we need to fight.

But it's still along the way from the outset.

We don't need to impress everybody.

We just need to place some space that is safe for many people, including my teams and my family.

So that's why we are intensively inwards and we are trying to know

that how if we healthy inside and forming the more healthy relation with the outside,

I think that's a work in progress. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:35):

With that in mind, how important is it that architecture is beautiful?

Speaker 2 (08:41):

It's so ultimate. It needs to be not all also beautiful, but is needs to be meaningful.

You can trust the roots and build the basic.

So how is important in our conversation like this?

Until the formation, we can tell the stories.

I think by doing that, I think that's the most important thing,

the thing that I can recall in the memory.

Speaker 7 (09:05):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:11):

So why was it important for you to approach practice in this way?

Speaker 2 (09:15):

When I try to define it architecture, I can find my,

because my father once said that you need to go back to the basic meaning

I have to started from the way that architecture is so detached with the reality

and the fight for me to go back to the reality is just to open up some of the barrier.

So by opening that barrier, I think people kind of see that, okay,

this is starting to have something magical going on and try to not have a client as the client,

but client as a part of the things that, okay, treat them as a family and we can grow together.

So by having that, I think we have a very healthy studio culture and relation with the client. Now what

Speaker 1 (10:06):

Is this? This is this

Speaker 2 (10:07):

Testimonials.

Speaker 1 (10:08):

Can I take one off and look?

Speaker 2 (10:09):

Yes, sure. And we've got this person Ned, and feels like my own home.

So good to spend 30 minutes from onto a book.

Speaker 1 (10:19):

That's like the highest praise ever, isn't it? That's right.

It feels like my own home. Yeah, it's a little bird's nest up here.

Speaker 2 (10:30):

Yes, we have.

Speaker 1 (10:31):

You seem to squeeze so much in to such a little footprint.

Is that something that happens from the beginning of the design

or as you sort of learn to live with the space that you add more or

Speaker 2 (10:42):

Yes, it's starting to train our mind. Of course, the big canvas,

you can always make it powerful and iconic, right?

But if you just surf very small, can you do that?

Speaker 1 (10:51):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:52):

It's something you're training in every day and day.

Speaker 1 (10:55):

Yeah,

Speaker 7 (10:55):

Indeed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:02):

You really are living this philosophy, this commitment to the idea of what architecture can be.

Speaker 2 (11:10):

I learned from my many teachers in central Java that what inside your mind is very important,

but do you know where do you want to go to? So that's kind of things makes me wonder about

if I limit myself, how can I limit the others if I limit the others?

And how about we can define the ecosystem? That's kind of critical question.

It's happening every day. I believe that architecture can touch people heart by doing that.

I think we need to focus in our own ecosystem.

Speaker 1 (11:43):

Oh whoa, this is unexpected. What a dramatic space.

And right in the center of all of this energy, it's like the still center.

Speaker 2 (11:53):

Yes. And still small, so I have to face it daily.

So you speak about therapeutical design space.

Speaker 1 (12:00):

Yeah. It puts a smile on your face every day. Yeah, I love that.

The ultimate, I guess expression then of your architecture has a real informality to it.

It seems like it is an organic accumulation of thinking and changing and a perpetual project,

certainly the gua, the nest house that feels like it's had many lives already.

Is that how you see architecture continually in motion?

Speaker 2 (12:34):

Yes. It's driven by many people, memories and emotions.

And if you tell the story, it's never ending. It's like 1000 and more stories, more people inside.

But if we can open our mind and there are some of the details as comes of the little conversation,

it'll make a great building by itself.

Speaker 1 (13:04):

When you think of good design, what does that mean to you?

Speaker 2 (13:09):

The meaning of the good design I think is a battle. It's battle. It's continuous battle.

It's continuous fight. It's continuous frugality.

It's a continuous how to win the people's heart.

That's the meaning of the good architecture.

If you still keep on going on your fighting.

And the last word is, I can face my father when he said that.

Are you still training? How's your training as a human being?

I think until the death coming to me, I think I will say that

I'm still training that something like that is I think will provide good architecture.

Speaker 7 (13:51):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:18):

This is Delhi, India's capital, a thriving metropolis and one of the world's largest mega cities home

to over 30 million people. It holds an important place on the world stage,

famous for its history, its architecture, its food, and its culture.

Unfortunately, because of its air quality, it's also one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Sunday nursery, a 90 acre park in the middle of Delhi has recently been part of an enormous renovation project,

installing 20,000 new trees, restoring historic buildings and bringing new greenery everywhere.

And it's home to a remarkable new tower of technology designed specifically to help Delhi

in its ongoing battle for clean air.

Speaker 5 (15:28):

So for us, it was very important as architects to create a balance between aesthetics and performance. For us, companies called to symbiosis.

So we are looking at symbiosis in everything which we do.

The idea was to really create this performance driven piece of the air purification tower,

which really sits as a part of urban furniture.

It's a multi-directional air purifier that's used the rotation of the cubes.

So the entire thing turns because air also changes direction throughout the room.

Speaker 1 (15:57):

So how efficient is it? How good is it at its job? It can

Speaker 3 (16:02):

Actually cleaner a large volume of air per day, like 700,000 cubic meter air per day,

which is equivalent to 322 hot air balloons.

Or another example is two cricket fields, two meter high.

Speaker 1 (16:16):

The geometries are obviously fluid and aerodynamically oriented.

But the scale of the problem here, I mean just give me a sense of how big is this problem?

Speaker 3 (16:25):

This problem is massive.

Speaker 5 (16:27):

Yeah. So they say 99.5% of urban population is living in pollution levels higher than their recommendation.

So in terms of the problem, it has never been worse.

And the worst part is that air water are two of the most essential components which are required for any human being.

And right now we are compromising one of them, which is air.

Speaker 1 (16:56):

So that's an enormous problem that you're tackling here. How does this actually work?

Speaker 3 (17:00):

So the polluted air, it sucks and it has fans, energy efficient fans,

it cleans the air and it falls out opposite side.

And because veto is turning, veto also comes from the Latin so means to turn, so it turns and cleans the air.

And because of the turning,

we are getting almost 360 degree multi-directional and air purification.

Speaker 5 (17:23):

It's all about wind track and the amount of air we can capture in the winter months,

the wind speed drops to 0.5 meter per second, and in summer it's around one and a half to two meter per second.

So that's why the pollution happens in Delhi.

If there was high wind, the entire pollution will go to neighboring states and not stand daily. It was not something we thought let's, as an AI purifier,

it was never ever intention just that as architects for one project we're looking for something which would do this.

And surprisingly, there was nothing which we found.

Okay, so the innovation is the key to any innovation.

So this is what was in this case, we started looking into aerodynamics.

We tried to understand what is a purifier, first of all,

and how does wind play such an important part?

So after a lot of research, we understood that air is actually the main component which drives the design.

Speaker 1 (18:15):

I mean, I would imagine that the problem with pollution

is out there on the streets in the middle of a busy roundabout or something like that. Why here?

Speaker 3 (18:21):

It's everywhere. It's everywhere because the trees don't clean fine particles.

They're trying to catch the fine particles PM 10 and pm 2.5, it goes in the bloodstream.

So it affects heart, lungs, liver, and the whole body because it enters the bloodstreams, right?

We have a better air because there's more oxygen, but there's still fine particles everywhere in the city. And here we wanted to put it somewhere where there are people on the weekends, it's quite busy there.

Sunday market here, a lot of people come morning talking and Frost Falls.

Speaker 5 (18:56):

It's not a city solution.

It's not a solution where you can put couple of water and the sky is blue and life is amazing again.

But it is a product which is changing one person's life at a time in a certain area.

It's a huge problem. So the solution has to be also huge.

If you want to clean a city, maybe you have to put like 3000 of.

Speaker 1 (19:14):

Tell me about the construction method here. It's modular, is that right?

Speaker 5 (19:18):

See, the idea was of course the structure is quite big.

We have to have a quick plugin play system, which can be quickly assembled on sites whenever required.

So it's a play of geometry coming from this aerodynamic elliptical form.

So we try to make it a modular system, which can be black, that ship easily,

and then you can erect it on site.

Speaker 1 (19:35):

How many of these would you imagine rolling out across the city? If you could,

Speaker 3 (19:39):

We should think of to start at some areas to create some clean hotspots in the city.

This would be the goal with a network of S, not only one whereto,

but a network which can create a clean bubble.

Speaker 1 (19:53):

Here there are people around, they have health on their mind because they're in the park.

So this is sort of signaling and demonstrating a potential solution as much as

it's actually solving what is good design to you.

Speaker 3 (20:12):

So I think good design is a performance term, but yet elegant test to fulfill both.

That's what we believe in studio

Speaker 1 (20:27):

Form and function unite here in this heroic innovation,

making this city more livable, more sustainable, and just better.

I think it's safe to say that when smart technology meets clever design,

the sky really is the limit. So this is all ratan?

Speaker 8 (21:09):

Yeah, yeah. Can you give me a wild guess

how many types of ratan there is in the world?

Speaker 1 (21:16):

I wouldn't know where to start. I'm going to say

Speaker 8 (21:18):

200. So there's about 600 species in the whole world

where about 50 of 'em is being traded commercially.

And about 97 or 98% of it grows naturally in Indonesia.

And so a lot of people, they don't really know

if there's any different kinds of species of ratan or different kinds of views.

And here we want to showcase the different kind of, yeah, look at this types.

This is called au.

So AU is the larger type of ratan, and usually they're made for furniture frames

while the smaller ones, this is called Sega.

They're used as part of the decoration. So the things that they put on top of it

or that one over there is called Titi. It's another different kind of, and

Speaker 1 (22:24):

Thinner, again,

Speaker 8 (22:24):

Thinner and a little bit wider.

So they are used for the outer skins of these benches.

Speaker 1 (22:31):

So

Speaker 8 (22:31):

They all have different kinds, different kinds of sizes.

Sometimes they have different kinds of characteristics.

So some are a little bit more stiffer, some a little bit more flexible.

And there's only so much that we

Speaker 9 (22:45):

Know

Speaker 8 (22:47):

50 out of 600. And so we have a lot of homework

and we always want to challenge other designers and architects.

I mean, why do you use bamboo or why do you use wood?

Why can't you use this type of material? It's indigenous and we have abundance of it.

Actually, I think the only missing piece is to connect between the natural resources

and the talents or the creative ideas.

We work with a very indigenous community based in central Borneo

Speaker 7 (23:23):

Where

Speaker 8 (23:23):

We came up with this collection.

This collection is called in and in means in a diac language

means to weave, to weave, to weave.

And so these people, they have about five or seven villages living next to each other,

and they've been working to make these type of craft,

let's say for centuries. But the most,

let's say enlightening thing that I experienced was when we went there.

These villages are still without electricity nor phone signal like two years ago,

and they have been living very sustainably.

So their main job is basically to farm

and because the soil is much drier than in Java,

so they have to move around every six or seven years to keep the nutrients

Speaker 1 (24:15):

Regenerated.

Speaker 8 (24:16):

So whenever they plant rice, they also plant fruit trees and they also plant ratan.

So every six or seven years, once they made a full circle,

those fruit trees become a secondary forest, of course,

and the ratan is ready to be harvested.

And so craft is a byproduct

because they use those ratan to actually make baskets, mats and everything.

But their main job is basically to farm.

What really draws us to want to work together with them is that

they are a very delicate culture, but at the same time,

they're also a dying craft. So this bench over here is called dahan,

and dahan means a tree branch in Indonesia.

And so the whole point was it was designed to remind people that

a while ago it was once alive, if you give them water and sun, it grows.

This is a different way of making,

because we incorporate the artisan much more into design process.

It's more like a co-creation type of thing.

And by doing so, we don't want to mass produce this,

so we only make this one as a one-off, and that's it.

We'll make several variations and after that then we'll create something else.

Speaker 1 (25:49):

So this is the only one of these that you've made?

Speaker 8 (25:52):

Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:53):

Clearly the materials not limiting you, I suppose.

If anything, you are really just receptive to what the material is telling you,

and I can see in the making then this is a prototype I'm assuming over here.

Tell me a little bit about the process of actual making.

Speaker 8 (26:08):

So here we really want to highlight or emphasize the fact

that these benches are made out of a single material.

So in Europe or America, and a lot of western countries now,

they already have a lot of regulations into carbon emissions, et cetera, et cetera.

And by using different kinds of components,

then it usually accumulates the emission through transportation, logistics and everything.

Whilst this bench is 99% is made out of just ratan,

that comes from a specific village and not really far from here,

although I mean it's a big country, but not really importing from a different country.

And the rest is really just minor components.

So I'm just hoping that one day the government puts these carbon emission regulations

or carbon taxes than these pieces should be a better option for people to look for.

Speaker 1 (27:02):

Part of the story of the showroom is all of the material making and the processes, what's going on here?

Speaker 8 (27:08):

So these are just highlights of where we got the materials from the forest,

how people took it, let's say from the deep end of the forest,

how the tools are being used to split them to take the core and to shave them.

And these processes are done very traditionally and very manually as well.

Mostly are done by women and they're very skilled.

If you can imagine.

They hold one end of the raton with their foot,

and the other end is basically to split the raton in half.

I tried that before I failed, measure miserably.

But then these processes continue to shave each strand using this type of tools

to make the width even.

And the waste of it is being used as a loofah to wash your dishes.

Speaker 1 (28:08):

Oh, right,

Speaker 8 (28:08):

Yeah. Nothing's wasted, nothing's wasted.

And even if you throw them away,

it degrades because it's all just natural with no chemical whatsoever.

So these strands are about two millimeters wide.

Some of them are 1.8, and these black ones are also naturally dy.

So the way they do it is they cook the ratan, these ratan strands with leaves that has latex on it,

and after they cook them, they turn into this dark brownish color.

After that, they buried it in the mud for two nights

, and after that it becomes black like this.

And these black colors, if you can see in the pieces that we have,

or even in the floor mats that the grandmothers used to have,

they could last for 50 or 70 years.

And these are just what type of leaves with Raman skins.

So imagine if we dip them in dragon fruit or in mangosteen or in different kinds of fruits,

what kind of colors we can have, and it's all natural, the waste of it.

I mean, you can just throw them away

and they become compost.

Design is a very problem oriented process,

and so if another person doesn't really understand

or even experience the problem,

then it's very difficult to actually teach them to create the solution for it.

They really need to jump into the deep end of the pool

to understand the really nitty gritty problem and challenges,

(29:46):

And hopefully they should have enough breath to actually surface, get some air, and actually do something about it.

Speaker 1 (30:03):

Having met Alvin, the thing that really impresses me

is he's one of those designers that sees design not as an object,

but as an approach to problem solving.

The way he casts his mind into a piece of furniture like this is to see it not as an object

, but as an entire ecology.

And he's prepared to put design to work in any one of the moments of that enormous supply chain

that goes from return to the product.

The thing that's so remarkable about all of that is that

even though that is a vast agenda still,

he seems to be able to produce these beautiful individual pieces.