On 7 May 2008, 15 students and Dr Ismail Said from the Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia visited Faculty of Civil Engineering and Planning at Trisakti University. UTM’s delegates were welcomed by the faculty dean, Dr Eka Sediadi Rasyad.
The purpose of the visit was to permit the students to present their design thesis of studio final comprehensive project to audience of Trisakti University. Hairul Fazali, Norjuridah and Lee Yoke Lai presented their works on a community park, an urban park and a waterfront development, respectively. Their works were critiqued by a few lecturers and students from Trisakti. Some of the positive comments were: (1) comprehensive design schemes based on innovative concepts, (2) good verbal communication in English, and (3) legible and attractive visual presentation. In fact, a few Trisakti’s students mentioned that they were fortunate to meet UTM’s students and to discuss on landscape design projects that were much new to them.
After the presentation from UTM, the session continued by presentation from students from the departments of architecture and landscape architecture of Trisakti. Their projects varied from regional and social analysis of rural development in Papua, analytical study of fountain in an urban residential complex, and designing park for the urban poor community in Jakarta. UTM students critiqued their works and found that: (1) diversity of design project was varied as what happened in UTM, and (2) development of design concept was relatively equal in both universities. The session ended by a brief lecture from Dr Ismail Said who delivered a topic Designing Children’s Environment: Listen to their Little Voices.
The academic visit has opened new insight to UTM students on mode and scope of learning the knowledge of architecture and landscape architecture in Indonesia, at least at Trisakti. All expanses were bared by the students and their lecturer, and they felt the worthiness of the direct exposure on designing places for people in different cultural context in Indonesia.
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