INDONESIAN HERITAGE: THE FOUNDING FATHER'S DESIGNS

Indonesian founding father, Soekarno, is an engineer graduated from Technische Hoogeschool Bandoeng or now known as Institut Teknologi Bandung – Bandung Institute of Technology. Besides as a president, he is also known as an artist, art lover and an architect also furniture designer. His designs are various from a house to a mosque. He and Oei Tjeng Hien in Bengkulu, Sumatra, in 1938 as explained by Yuke Ardhiati in her book ‘Bung Karno the Architect’, joined together to start furniture business under the label ‘Mebel Soekamerindoe’.

Soekarno’s furniture designs are placed on several palaces in Indonesia like Istana Negara in Jakarta, Istana Bogor located in Bogor, a small city near Jakarta, Istana Cipanas also in Bogor and Istana Tampak Siring in Bali. His designs also placed in Hotel Indonesia, Jakarta, and Hotel Samudra Beach in Pelabuhan Ratu, Sukabumi, West Java. In producing his designs, Soekarno is helped by some cabinet makers, like Chris Broekhuyzen, an art deco artist in Bandung.

‘I made myself the design of my office desk of one solid Indonesian teak.’

His designs are recognized have lotus shape, simple, clean and bodyship impression. Some of them have art deco touch combined with splash of Indonesian traditional, individualist and modernist. His collection also reflecting the romanticism with Biedermeyer style.