The Face Of Indonesia's New Capital That Will Be Like Wakanda

Sofian Sibarani architecture from Urban + designer 'Nagara Rimba Nusa' (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo through the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) has announced the winners of the new state capital design competition (IKN). Jokowi chose the concept of 'Nagara Rimba Nusa' as the design for the new capital city of Indonesia.

The Nagara Rimba Nusa team set aside 291 other design proposals that also participated in the competition. The design is the result of the collaboration of 10 architects from within and outside the country.

One of the team members, Sibarani Sofian, shared that when designing the new capital city, he was a little inspired by the fictional city Wakanda from the film Black Panther. In line with that, the surrounding natural conditions also support the city to be built without sacrificing the ecosystem.

"Like Wakanda, maybe yes. If the inspiration is more or less taking the design concept from cities like Canberra or Washington. But we also don't want to lose the character of the forest," Sofian said during a conversation with VOI, Tuesday, December 24.

"We take a lot of elements from forests and islands in Indonesia. So with such elements, our government can remain close to nature. Natural policies or nature wisdom can also harmonize the relationship between humans and nature and God," he explained.

For Sofian and the team, harmonizing the concept with the surrounding natural conditions is a challenge in itself. Some of his team members even had time to directly monitor the location of the prospective new capital city to get a feel for designing designs.

Sibarani Sofian designer from Urban + designer 'Nagara Rimba Nusa' (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

In designing the new capital city, Sibarani who is also the founder of Urban + wants the monumentality of a national capital to be in harmony with the sustainability of the surrounding environment in presenting a good urban system area.

"We want to represent the majority of Indonesian cities that are always close to waters and forests. So a concept inspired by nature and humans can line up well," he continued.

In line with that the master plan of the overall design of the new capital city also has several advantages including aspects of functionality, compact land efficiency, and national identity. Apart from that, there are also public spaces and democratic spaces.

This is also represented by the Tugu Bhineka Tunggal Ika monument, which is the focal point of the design of the new capital. Collaborating 34 provinces in Indonesia in one important cultural milestone at the center point of the new capital.

"This is an axis of equitable development. In the plaza there will be an important milestone representing 34 provinces in Indonesia. There is an ethnic form or a pattern, be it batik or cultural patterns, that exist there, so all the people are represented as their baseline for towards advanced Indonesia, "said Sibarani.

Development master plan

The Minister of Public Works and Public Housing, Basuki Hadimuljono, said that the winner of the design competition for the new capital city to be built in East Kalimantan would later be merged by the government to become a major development master plan.

Not only design, building planning and integrated transportation are the factors that will be focused on in the final results that will be introduced next year.

"Later, the winners will be brought to the field, fine tuned, adjusted to the design of the winners with the field conditions which are very hilly from the height to the bay of Balikpapan," said Basuki as summarized from CNNIndonesia.

As is well known, the concept of 'Nagara Rimba Nusa' was chosen by Jokowi and the government as the winner of the design competition for the new nation's capital city. The design was made by the Urban + company founded by Sofian Sibarani, along with other architectures from within and outside the country. They have the right to bring home a prize of Rp. 2 billion as the first winner. While the 2nd and 3rd place winners were The Infinite City and the City of a Thousand Stripes, respectively.