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Stasi Santa Maria Karunia Bakti Church / Studio Lawang
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Textual content description offered by the architects. The challenge is positioned at Mengkait Island, Kepulauan Anambas Regency, within the Province of Riau Islands. To get there, one can fly from Batam to Letung, then take a small ferry to Tarempa, and at last a ship to the distant island. It was Studio Lawang’s first collaboration with Jala Kasih, a non-profit on-line crowdfunding platform by Vinea Dei Basis. Oang Laot, the indigenous individuals of Mengkait are fishermen. They depend on the ocean as their supply of revenue. The ocean surrounding the island is exceptionally lovely with its clear water and wealthy number of fish which embody the Humphead Wrasse, generally often called Napoleon Fish.
The prevailing catholic church on the island was already too small to accommodate +/_ 500 parish members. No Catholic priest resides on the island. The closest priest resides at Tarempa, in the principle parish, about 2.5-3.5 hours of small boat journey from Mengkait. This implies, each time a priest involves the island, each parishioner would need to attend the mass that doesn’t occur repeatedly each week. An even bigger church was wanted, therefore a brand new one was deliberate.
The positioning is positioned on the highest level of the island. Moreover the bushes, nothing separates the church from the pure components, particularly the wind. Subsequently, the design began with how to answer the robust wind that comes from the ocean aspect. The church was designed with the bottom level dealing with the ocean and gently rising towards the inland, making a triangle profile as a base design. This fashion, the wind will gently sweep by the roof floor, versus hitting it exhausting if a vertical wall was to be constructed dealing with the ocean. The ultimate type of the church was designed to be a easy icon that may be interpreted as an ocean wave, or it can be seen as a ship, each of that are intently associated to the Mengkait individuals.
What makes this challenge particular is the involvement of the Mengkait individuals no matter their faith. It’s lovely and heart-warming to see their power and spirit in constructing this new icon of the island. In Indonesia, we have now the time period gotong-royong, which implies working collectively with out anticipating any reward. This time period was alive all through the constructing course of.
Initially, we want to have as many regionally sourced supplies for use within the constructing, resembling wooden for doorways, partitions, and ceiling panels, and reduce native stone for the ground, however technical difficulties, materials availability, and value have made a few of this unique concept needs to be changed with the extra available, simpler to put in and cost-effective supplies. Communication was additionally a problem, because the island itself has restricted mobile and web protection. Moreover, the challenge ran through the 2020-2022 Covid-19 pandemic, which made touring to the distant island much more difficult. Mission coordination and dialogue must depend on digital conferences and updates on instantaneous messaging purposes.
One other main problem is the shortage of freshwater. When the Mengkait individuals want contemporary water, they must journey to a neighboring island by boat and get the water from a pure freshwater properly there. This has made us design, a rainwater harvesting system with an open platform and Mom Mary Grotto dealing with the ocean on high of it as a spot of reflection. The concept is to retailer each drop of water that falls from the roof of the church for the on a regular basis use of the individuals of Mengkait. The constructing was accomplished though the rainwater harvesting system has not but been constructed.
The end result with all of the challenges and limitations was astonishing. It’s fantastic what could be achieved when finished collectively within the spirit of gotong royong. It was much more rewarding to see how the individuals of Mengkait react to the constructing. Hopefully, the constructing can serve the individuals of Mengkait properly, give them a way of pleasure and convey extra guests to the island, therefore rising the financial alternative of the island.
