It has been two months already, ever since I walked down toward this rustic greyish building, or a castle, with its skylights on the rooftop. Now, I’m writing this words in my curvilinear table in the corner of the working room. I’ll be missing this atmosphere, of course, even the “leaf” door-shaped and all the unique detail inside this working space. Detail, the premise I used to describe this office, until the system applied has a correspondence to that word.
I remember how my first day here, in the center room, ran well started by morning briefing with all the crews, designers, and associates. We discussed the meeting not in the rigid way, everybody issued their thoughts and listened each other, and from that day I knew I already got crews and communication that I can agree with. They are like a team and family, sounds cliché I know, but you don’t have to worry anything as long as you’re willing to learn and dedicate your time to develop your knowledge here. Here, in RAW, I experienced that struggle and criticisms are prerequisites for greatness. You will meet some moments when you have to go home a bit late because there are few revisions and project to do, that is when your focus and endurance will be tested, but believe me it is worth the effort.
There are Kak Rich, as the principal, then senior architects, associates, who will keep an eye to you during your working time, just to make sure you do your project clearly, and always sprightul helping you with their ideas and advices. I could not use one software as great as others, I even started to use it regularly here, and within 2 days since I started to use it, I already could use that program correctly. The crews taught me with patience and clear guides. In another project I joint, an exhibition, I made details on each projects that already selected. I never expected that I will get deeper even to make the details when I got into internship, but we can turned back to my premise, detail. That is what makes RAW different, they concerned about the detail, by research that they explored, the efficiency, all clean. In another way, Kak Rich is a figure, I can call it role model, that always share what he got to the crews. He is a charismatic leader, with a humble attitude, who always keeps us to do everything better, give the optimist atmosphere that make us believe we can push ourself to the limit, in an efficiency time.
In another side, there is OMAH, a public library contained a lot of books that Kak Rich founded and he hopes that people will get more positive knowledges when they got out of there. The crews got so many references to do the project by coming to OMAH and read some great books there, and it was culture here. Kak Rich always motivated us, to be the generation that loves to read, because beside talent, we can improve our skills by gathering knowledges, one of them is reading. In the last project I joint, I had to explore about 2 architects who concerned about locality. It was a writing workshop that Kak Rich hold to internship members, as his effort to push us to love reading. He taught us how to make premise, ideas, be curious about what to explore, even until we make it as interesting paragraph and what words to use, a poetic ways in some point, which Kak Rich loves. He said, “What do you want to explore?” “What other interesting facts can you get from their background?” “There must be something positive you can get, be more critical.” Then he gave us some reference books in OMAH. From that, I see that Kak Rich is the leader who lead not only by giving the command, he guides directly, make us give our participation and share thoughts in discuss.
Now I want to say thank you, a lot, to Kak Rich as a teacher, all of the crews, internship’s friends, designers, associates, for your kind guidance. This 2 months are pretty hard to pass in the first few days, adapt with work hours, but I really enjoy to work with people here. I got so many experience, especially in working in the office as an intern, doing the project with the team, discussing with Kak Rich and all of the crews, and many more. I really am grateful to ever be the part of this team, thank you RAW for helping me to have one step ahead in architecture.
So, there won’t be nights anymore with music marathon or hard laughs from the mezzanine. There will be things I miss about this office. Saying goodbye is always hard and I wish the best of luck to RAW and to all my seniors inside. Keep being best office in the world!
Best Regards,
Ahndya Chita Sekar Anggriti
Insitut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
My Mayonnaise Jar 