WHITE TENUN TOWER

shortlisted competition entry for an office tower

in collaboration with Raymond Warnerin, Frans Tamasoleng, Susanty Artha Gilberte
2017, JASINDO HEADQUARTERS DESIGN COMPETITION, JAKARTA

White Tenun Tower

A tall building should interrelate between the human scale and the scale of the surrounding buildings in the city. With the location of the site between the pedestrian lane, street, overpass freeway and the light rail transit the relationship of buildings with other scales are amplified due to differences in speed of movement and perspective.

The four storey podium is a direct formal response to the overpass whilst the office tower is sitting above. The podium consists of public facilities featuring open mezzanine levels with a view to the surroundings. Vertical fins is a logical sunscreen solution, graded in scale and exaggerates height, is arranged from human scale, scale of vehicular perspective, scale of buildings and finally the scale of the cityscape are weaved (tenun in Indonesian) in a continuous manner. The result, a unique facade expression that is experienced differently depending on the mode of movement.

Energy systems strive to promote optimum natural systems wherever possible, including an innovative employing mist in the double skin glazing system from collected rainwater to cool down the building, natural ventilation in the lobby, mezzanine and atrium, and greywater recycling.

The atrium within the building penetrates from the ground level to the uppermost level, functioning not just as a ventilation strategy, but also allows visitors from the lobby to have a glimpse to the sky. The open air four level mezzanine acts as a circulation space for the public facilities, and also exhibits the public activities to the street, humanising the scale of the tower. The facade articulation returns into the soffit of the podium, creating a grand ceiling to the public towards the auditorium.