ITB Architecture Alumni Held Dialogue Related to The Architect Role in AEC

By Hafshah Najma Ashrawi

Editor Hafshah Najma Ashrawi

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id- Alumni of ITB Architecture hosted special event in a series of event along with great reunion events this year. Dialogue with the theme of "Liberalization and The Architect Role in the Era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)" was chosen as the main event of this event. The dialogue was held on Friday (22/05/15) in East Campus Halls ITB Ganeca. The dialogue was proposed as a driving force towards the better competence of architects in Indonesia. It also becomes a moment of revival for ITB alumni to play the social and political role for the advancement of education, particularly in architecture.
"This dialogue is very important. The reunion is not only about friendship, but also meant for greater good. We choose dialogue with the theme 'Liberalization, ASEAN Economic Community and Future Architecture of Indonesia' as the main event here, "said Sarwo Handayani (Architecture, 1973) as the Chairman of the Alumni of Architecture ITB.

The dialogue was moderated by sociologist Imam Prasojo, and featured by four speakers from different backgrounds: Sigit Soesiantomo (Member of Parliament), Gunwan Tjahyono (UI Architecture Lecturer), Eddy Husy (Chairman of the Central Executive Council of Real Estate Indonesia), and Adrian Kusuma (International Architect). This dialogue discussed about how to enhance the competence of Indonesian architects which will compete with the other countries in ASEAN soon, especially related to AEC. One of the solutions offered in the discussion is the existence of a law which protects the architect by orderly regulation of professionalism.

The architect or the users of architect service need to support each other in order to achieve the objectives of the AEC. The government and the business player are expected to remain in favour of local architects. On the other hand, local architects should improve their competencies ever since in college. In the dialogue, Andrian Kusuma said that the education that has international standards basics is needed so that national college graduates have competitiveness against the international graduates.

Through the dialogue, a suggestion about the need to consider the collaboration between architect and entrepreneur for the sake of improving the quality of local architects was also submitted. The context of this cooperation is in the form of knowledge transfer. In addition, among professional architects, there should be awareness to be raised about the importance of continuous improvement during the AEC in the future.