Buildings Are Not Just About Aesthetics

What are the factors that make buildings good? It’s not just about the aesthetics for sure. Or the strength of the structure and all that kind of stuff. We must go back to the all three factors that Roman guy Vitruvius said, Strength, Beauty, and Utility. Yes, utility.

In this design industry anything have to be practical and useful. There is one very basic and fundamental question that we need to ask ourselves everytime we are going to design something, well, not just buildings, “Is this going to be useful? Not just for us, but the environments, and most importantly the people, both the users and those people around it.”

I’ve been studying Architecture for almost 3,5 years now and I’m so fed up with anything most of the lecturers taught in their classes, “Make this beautiful, like this, like that. Look at Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, bla bla bla.” I mean, why can’t we just make something that’s useful? I don’t frickin need to build a new Mall if there is one already on the site. Perhaps all these stuff are the cause of me not wanting to listen to everything the Architecture School is trying to tell me.

Now take a look at the picture above. The way all those buildings are connected to its left and right, facing one and the other and creating this linear open space in between the two blocks that becomes the space for all the people to interact and HAVE A LIFE.

Unlike this right here:

This is my beloved city, Jakarta, Indonesia. This is the slum side of my city. I’ve been living in this city for almost 6.5 years, and regardless of all the cool and tall buildings in it, I always feel sad about this. For real, I can’t say anything about it. I’m a simple guy, I just want everyone to be happy. And surely living in a place like this is not the right place to get that happy life.

One day kids, one day…. :)

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