IMELDA AKMAL ARCHITECTURAL WRITER AWARD, BOOK LAUNCHING, EXHIBITION & TALKSHOW

Time: 11 February · 14:00 - 18:00

Location:  Citiwalk, Jakarta

Created by: Imelda Akmal Architectural Writer.

1. Awarding Ceremonial of  3 Design Competition Home Idea Series: Healthy Economical Home, Green Small Home, Tropical Energy Saving Home.
2. Exhibition of the winners' and nominees' design presentations.
3. A panel of jury commentary. 
4. Architectural and Design Seminar.
5. Launching of the latest 3 books, Home Idea Series, from Imelda Akmal Architectural Writer.
6. IAAW book corner. Special books of IAAW discount during the event. 

Imelda Akmal is one of well known architectural, interior design writers in Indonesia. Imelda started her writing career in 1993, after earning a diploma in architecture from Trisakti University in Jakarta. Instead of applying for a position at an architect firm, she joined the staff of Femina, a local women’s magazine, as a columnist.

In 1996, Imelda quit her job as a columnist and started writing her own books. Together with her spouse and co-worker, photographer Sonny Sanjaya, Imelda published her first book, titled Menata Rumah Mungil (Decorating Small Homes).  The book was a big hit and has been reprinted 13 times over the last 10 years. It also gives Imelda Akmal a trademark — the small homes designer.Imelda Akmal loves to write about architecture itself — referring to herself as an architecture writer — and has published more than 70 architecture and interior books. 50 Indonesian Architect + Emergings is Imelda’s third book that looks into the development of Indonesian architecture. Her two previous books, Indonesian Architecture Now and Indonesian Architecture Now (II) published in 2005 and 2008 respectively, highlighted the latest contemporary works by Indonesian architects and aimed to give international exposure to local architects.

Imelda moved to Australia to pursue a Master’s degree in business management and work as a freelance interior designer. From there she moved to Singapore. After living in foreign countries for quite long time, Imelda realized something that led her to writing her book about the development of Indonesian architecture.
“Indonesia is a vast country, but no one works to promote our architecture to the international world. So people knew nothing about contemporary Indonesian architecture development.”

Imelda therefore began to develop a concept about her first architectural writing endeavor, Indonesian Architecture Now. In this book, she presented the works of 20 local architects. Aimed at reaching international readers, the book was published in dual language, Indonesian and English. It took five years for Imelda to finish. It eventually became a major success. “Indonesian Architecture Now became a bestseller and was a recommended title for a month at bookstores in Singapore,” Imelda said. “It was a breakthrough. Local architects were most happy because finally their works got international recognition.”

Although Imelda wrote all of her books herself, she has formed a team that helps her write architectural and interior books. Established in 2002, Studio IAAW (Imelda Akmal Architectural Writers) consists of nine female writers who studied architecture. “I don’t know why my staff is all women. Maybe women are more interested in writing than men,” Imelda laughed. “But I require my staff to have an education in architecture because architectural writers need to be capable of appraising and criticizing designs.” The studio is currently handling a number of projects, including monthly interior design books and a series of architectural books. “For architecture books, we are working on a sequel to 50 Indonesian Architects + Emergings.”

source: The Jakarta Post