HIGH-END FURNITURE DESIGN IS STILL IN ITS INFANCY IN INDONESIA. YET AS HARUMI SUPIT REPORTS, THE COUNTRY HAS THE TALENT TO COMPETE WITH THE BEST

On a Tuesday afternoon, the three-story building housing newcomer furniture gallery Accupunto is quiet. A well-dressed customer inspects the fluidly designed pieces on display above the poured concrete floor. I run my hand over a solid two-meter slab of native ironwood buffed into a gorgeous table, planting my weight on one of the gallery’s distinctive chairs made of strung-together plastic balls. It is a display that would look right at home in Stockholm or Hong Kong, but in fact 90 percent of the products here are the creation of a local designer named Leonard Theobrata.

Indonesia has long been a mecca of furniture manufacturing and is a top world producer of raw materials such as rattan, plywood and teak. According to the Indonesian Craft and Furniture Producers Association (Asmindo), furniture exports fetched US$2.65 billion in 2008, while domestic sales brought in $700 million, employing over eight million workers in total. But the leap from furniture manufacturing to design and concepts is still in its infancy.

Theosubrata, who studied in Pasadena in the United States, feels that a truly Indonesian furniture design concept is still in its formative stages. “It doesn’t exist yet. But at present, our industry is experiencing major changes. Eight years ago when I arrived from college, it was just starting out. But in the past three years, we have experienced strong support from the public, the media and the government.”

He lists his experiences abroad as being a big influence on how he approaches design. “My design is contemporary and simple with my own take on design functionality.” At present this translates into an interest in tactile objects, and to those with a patina quality.

At an institutional level, the groundswell of support for local furniture designers is tangible. The Ministry of Industry has earmarked some 60 billion Rupiah to the creative industry, including product design, between 2007 and 2011, while an increasing number of private sector initiatives such as the Djarum Innovation Award help to recognize good design.

There is clearly no lack of talent.

Indonesian designers have won numerous awards overseas. Theosubrata’s Accupunto chairs have won the Germany Red Dot award and Good Design Award from the Japan Design Council; Dino Fabriant’s Mini Tall Boy Home Theatre won a 2006 Innovation Award in Korea; while the British Design Awards recognized Singgih S Kartono’s wooden Magno radio.

Yet would-be designers continue to face an uphill struggle. Job options for furniture product designers are often limited, with poorly defined career paths, and there remain numerous obstacles when it comes to branding and manufacturing.

Recently returned from Europe, Alvin Tjitrowirjo is a leading young product designer who now teaches furniture design at Pelita Harapan University. He says a lack of talent nurturing is often due to poor understanding of the additional value that furniture design can bring to an item.

“I think it is because Indonesia is very much a handicraft-based country. So a product designer is often misunderstood as a carpenter. The public doesn’t yet appreciate design’s potential.” He says most graduates of his furniture design courses go on to work at interior design firms or architectural firms.

Tjitrowirjo is also greatly influenced by his time spent in Europe. In his search for the soul of contemporary Indonesian design, he tries to produce design concepts with an Indonesian bent. “Most of the things that inspire me are the small details that I have found in Indonesia. Traditional patterns, human behavior, personalities, traditional tools. The visual and philosophical details of a culture.”

The most promising factor in the emergence of sustainable Indonesian product design is the fact that domestic tastes are changing. Claudia Halim, furniture storeowner of Klots, which started off in 1999 with elaborate classical designs, says in the last decade the local market has started to seek out contemporary and streamlined pieces. She has in turn tailored her offerings accordingly.

Across the archipelago, more buyers are now willing to make a splash in their furniture buying, judging by sales at local Jakarta storefront ToiMoi. The retailer sells left-field furniture pieces, such as chairs made from cardboard. A spokesperson says that in the last year and a half, orders have come from as far away as Medan for such curious pieces – with customers becoming more open to buying furniture, where previously they had limited themselves to cushions or curtains.

Tjitrowirjo describes one main group of his customers as second-generation business owners: established and affluent urbanites in their late twenties to forties, with money to spare and an aesthetic appreciation often honed abroad. The other is a younger, more artistic and design-conscious group, often in places like Bandung, which makes up in creativity what it often lacks in money.

While both yield strong influence, he believes it will take up to a decade for Indonesian furniture product design to reach a necessary scale in terms of both demand and supply. During that time, he hopes more Indonesians will regard domestic products more positively compared with imports; while the quality and consistency of production of small orders in particular will have improved.

Overall, Theosubrata in particular sees a bright future ahead for Indonesian high-end furniture. “I see huge potential for Indonesia to be a regional leader in contemporary design. We have both the talent and the resources.” Danes and Swedes, you have been warned.

Contacts

Accupunto
25A Jln Prapanca South Jakarta tel: (0)21 541 5522 www.accupunto.com

Alvin Tjitrowirjo
www.alvin-t.com

Klots Furniture
48 Jln Kemang Timur South Jakarta tel: (0)221 7179 1827 www.klots.com

Magno - PIRANTI WORKS
tel: (0)293 490 0895 www.magno-design.com

ToiMoi
27 Jln Kemang Raya South Jakarta tel: (021) 719 8371 www.toimoi.co.id