For a nation that upholds the very principles of human rights, it is crucial for Indonesia to establish a vessel that serves not only as reflection of what the nation hopes to be for future generations, but also a retrospective of what this nation has done before. This becomes an opportunity for the museum’s design development where the journey of the people, right or wrong, gets to be experienced once again through its spatial experiences in architecture. In this proposed architecture project for the Human Rights Museum in Batu, East Java, all the hopes and horrors of Indonesia’s humanity are to be redefined firsthand.
The museum starts with its open areas to signify its welcoming atmosphere, hence its tilted masses along the site with both of the establishments come closer at the end. Once inside, the museum will then present a number of showcases, each darker than before, both in terms of lighting and ambience, emphasizing the gravity of Indonesia’s past sins. These spaces are crafted in specific with each incidents of Indonesia’s greatest human rights violations that had happened in the span of 70 years since Indonesia has emerged to become one independent nation. From the cases of the Tanjung Priok Shootings, Marsinah, the killings of young activist in ’98, to the death of Omah Munir himself, the spaces are thought out individually through the principles of architecture.
Though at the end the museum showcases the hopes and dreams of what a peaceful Indonesia should ever become, these spaces are meant to evoke and encourage people to realize the power of humanity from oneself. Having taken the journey within the Human Rights Museum walls, this proposed design is aimed to be the proper example of architecture in its purest form.
The proposed design for the Omah Munir Human Rights Museum has earned its place amongst the top five finalist to be presented in Malang on the 10th of December 2018.
