In recent years, the trend or style of architecture in Indonesia tend to be minimalist. What is so called Minimalism? Minimalism is one of the most influential styles today – from design, to architecture, to music, to way of life.
What is minimalist architecture?
Minimalist architecture uses a few spare essentials to reach the essence of architecture. This means condensing a design’s content to a minimum of necessary elements, number of parameters, and operating means that define form. Thus, minimalist architecture is a result of the elimination of the inessentials, where the design is stripped down to its most fundamental features and can no longer be improved upon by subtraction.
Basically, minimalist architecture is a modified design of modern style. This minimalist design is often interpreted as a reaction to the style of expressionism.
In Indonesia, the tendency of people to choose a minimalist architectural design, solely as a reaction to saturation of the building model that tends to be too monotonous, many ornaments, difficult to clean and others. On the other hand, the minimalist trend is also influenced by the style of world architecture in general which tends to give priority to practical impression, simple but does not reduce the basic function and its beauty.
What need to consider?
Minimalism was apparently not without problems. In some cases, with an architect wanting to apply 100% minimalism, new problems can arise. The easiest example is a flat roof of cast concrete that is applied totally to a residential building.
Undeniably, the minimalist home building design that we often see in foreign magazines tend to be without a roof. Since Indonesia is located on the equator and has a tropical climate, then in fact, the roof of concrete is less suitable.
In summer, the concrete receives continuous heat from the sun. In addition to providing heat radiation in the room below, the concrete tends to crack. In the rainy season, the cracks can be filled with water and leaking becomes a common problem.
Although in fact, cast concrete can be substituted with other materials such as lightweight steel roofs, but in practice, solar thermal radiation remains a problem. In the hot weather the heat in the room can increase. When it rains, the noise of the water on the roof surface becomes a nuisance.
Other elements that are not less important in the minimalist design is the frame and windows. Usually minimalist buildings using sills and windows made of weatherproof materials such as aluminum. Since the minimalist buildings tend to be without a roof then there is no protection against the frame and windows. The use of wood material is not recommended because of the shrinkage and the destruction of finishing that eroded rain water and sunlight.
Well, from the above it can be concluded that adapting the minimalist architectural trends in buildings such as residence is not prohibited or wrong. But the existing minimalist trend must also be adapted to the tropical characteristics in Indonesia, so you will not likely be the victims of the trend. Well, the above are just a few elements of other elements that must be considered before you decide to build a minimalist house.
