Architecture is not for selected few but EVERYONE.

Tenggarong Theological Seminary Dormitory (Tenggarong, Borneo, Indonesia)

This project is intended to house a minimum of 12 dorm rooms for two students in each room. The size of the building is limited to the budget they had at the moment which is approximately $ 50,000. The building should also fit with local culture and climate. The site was not determined yet, but the building should have North-South orientation with a possibility to be put anywhere in campus.

Budget limitation drives the design to explore the use of cheap local materials, local building techniques, local strategies for climate control, and simple building layout and construction.

In addition, the building should be designed expandable horizontally and vertically fairly easy in the future. The strategy then is to use a double loaded corridor system to assure horizontal expansion and to make the roof removable to the next floor when additional floor is added. Breaking circulation corridor with communal space is important to let natural light come into the circulation space in the middle. The roof is constructed of concrete beams and columns with expansion joints for additional floors. Indigenous wood is used for rafters which are easily taken apart and put together again on the next level.

Tenggarong is located right along the equator in Borneo island with hot and humid climate as well as harsh sunlight. Cross ventilation is implemented to cool the building through louvers of decorative concrete blocks on top of doors and windows to let the wind flush the hot air out. Deep roof overhang shades the roof deck. Deep overhanging terraces and chain-link curtain walls shade the building to reduce the intensity of the sunlight coming into the building. Vines growing on the curtain walls further shade the building and provide identity for each occupant.

Interaction between occupants is encouraged through communal space on each floor. There are lounge rooms and roof deck for socializing. The roof deck is also the place for washing and drying clothes where the water used will cool the building.

Siebert Remodel (Tacoma, Washington State, USA)

Highline College Campus Wayfinding Concept Study (Des Moines, Washington State, USA)

Bryant Montessori School (Tacoma, Washington State, USA)

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News

Architecture for Everyone is part of BCRA Design and Korsmo Construction Design-Build team to deliver the Lowell Elementary School replacement for Tacoma Public Schools.

Ko Wibowo presented Texture Materials for Children at Design for Early Learning Conference in Tacoma, Washington State on Monday, January 22, 2024.

Architecture for Everyone and Johnston Architects began designing the Sumner Library for the Pierce County Library System.

Architecture for Everyone was selected as one of the on-call architects for Seattle Colleges.

Architecture for Everyone was selected as one of four architects for the Child Care Capacity Initiative in Pierce County, Washington State.

Sibert Remodel is currently under construction and nearing completion.

Architecture for Everyone is part of TCF Architecture and Skanska Design-Build team to deliver Bryant Montessori School replacement for Tacoma Public Schools. Ground breaking ceremony was May 10, 2023.

Western Washington University Salish Sea Studio at Fairhaven College is now substantially completed. WWU will install acoustical treatments with the projected opening in May 2024.

Thoughts

Architecture is not for selected few but EVERYONE. The upper 1% can buy with their wealth, the bottom 5% are taken care of by the government. The challenge for each architect is to also serve the middle from the bottom 5% to the upper 1%. That is social justice in architecture.

If Disneyland is to Apple Macintosh in its integrated design, Las Vegas is to IBM PC in its open-source method. But both employ Robert Venturi’s “ugly and ordinary” design approach.

Creativity is to solve design problems, not to creatively force the realization of a heroic design ideal.

We expect our buildings to be flexible and adaptable but fail to recognize that we, humans, are the most adaptable creature. Architecture is heavy and static and, therefore, shall not be expected to be able to be changed too much without significant intervention.

London is historic, Paris is grand, and Basel is organized.

Recent protests on issues of race and inequalities were staged in public spaces: our streets, parks, plazas, bordered by our buildings. While tolerance is built by understanding each other through listening to others, done as individual human beings, the result is a democracy that takes place in public spaces. Our behavior in these spaces defines how successful democracy will be. Thus, the design and quality of these spaces, undoubtedly, influence our behavior. We learned about listening from Slim’s Table by Mitchell Duneier. We learned how we instinctively behave on the street when faced with a perceived danger in Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom by Elijah Anderson. We learned how buildings can contribute negatively to our streets in Fortress L.A. by Mike Davis. We learned how we can collectively contribute to segregation in Community Becomes Uncivilized by Richard Sennett. We learned how we prepare and deal with potential negative experiences on our streets in The Uses of Sidewalk by Jane Jacobs. Now it is time we care about our public spaces and apply what we have learned to design these spaces so democracy can flourish and spread out.

Between three east Asian traditional architecture of China, Korea, and Japan, the most ornate and decorative is Chinese, followed by Korea and Japan being the least. That is why Japanese architecture can accept and adopt the idea of modernism well, especially minimalism.

The greatest gift architects can give our clients is the added value of their design while they live in and the increased property value when they sell. The increased property value would be much more than the assessed value and beyond the fee they paid for. This could be one of the ways to close the wealth gap.