Journey To the East – Awakening the Roots

Today is friday night, I was thinking about the next lecture on omah series, in collaboration with UPH Architecture and Konteks. This is about the first phase of mastery by greene, it’s deep observation.

Le Corbusier wrote book titled Journey to the East as travel diary that the twenty-four-year-old Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) kept during his formative journey through Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe in 1911. It’s about his experience in contact with vernacular architecture, the mosque complexes, the Acropolis, and the Parthenon.

Le Corbusier’s story is very much a story of awakening and a voyage of discoveries, recording a seven-month journey that took him from Berlin through Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul, Athos, Athens, Naples, and Rome, among other places. Le Corbusier considered this journey the most significant of his life. Hearing the lecturer in this short course, is like having a pilgrimage trip from best teachers and professors in this course. I never been to Corbusier’s work, but reading this, I would love to observer some of his works.

This deep observation phase was well known phase for architects, like Antonie Predock, Frank Gehry, carlo scarpa, or even Tadao Ando. To be a master, period of deep observation is the critical point. As Bernard Schumi said in Virilio’s book Landscape as events, there will be person who will be need to share his understanding, wisdom, bringing map so every matters will be shiny in crystal clear for especially to understand the wisdom of the east, very heart of Indonesian specialities. This is the position of the lecturer who will present journey to the east short course.

The process of deep observation is divided to 5 topics , Education, Traditional – Contemporary Architecture, Sustainable design in tropical climate, and materiality in indonesian context – awakening the modern craftmanship. The course is set by 5 considerations on how we learn the forming of education of an architect, understanding our traditional wisdom, reflecting on our current contemporary issues, innovating through sustainable architecture, and the last mastering the architecture and the technology and science of material in form making.

There are 5 – friends, thinkers, and professors that will be the presenter, person who will deliver the thoughts about journey to the east. David Hutama, Setia Sopandi, Avianti Armand, Tiyok Prasetyoadi and Adi Purnomo. David is one of the best to explain the condition of education of architects in indonesia, he is the one who proposed Pak Cung, one architect, historian, lecturer, currator of several exhibition and Bu Vivi, writer, architect, lecturer. Pak Tiyok, co founder GBCI, architect, and community leader and Pak Mamo, writer, architect, and lecturer to join the board. They are very busy people, I am glad they will to help this short course for the restless spirit.

I remember quote from Erich Fromm which fills me full of curiosity in this deep observation phase

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.”