July HIDAYAT
Lecturer - Department of Interior Design, Universitas Pelita Harapan - INDONESIA
ABSTRACT
In making an interior design that puts identity as its goal, to put forward the ethnical identity, for example, designers and owners frequently follow the traditional codes to communicate certain symbolic meanings, to be able to speak in certain cultural communities or environment. But in reality, the subjective translation toward patterns or design codes always happens, because the quality of understanding to the objective codes is influenced by the reader’s ground. Even in adopting strategy of identity representation, which is frequently interpreted as uncritical imitation, translation remains. Patterns, design standards, codes and conventions are always in dialogue with personal reference and specific needs.
This approach comprehends an interior design as language but unlike the standardized one used in scientific texts that are full of grammatical rules, it is more likely to model daily conversational language which considers individual accentuation of communicators. Exploration to parole giving ideas that linguistics can become a starting point to involve a phenomenological experience. The design codes are imminent, but not merely function as media for submitting symbolic meaning. The design code itself communicates through its internal meaning, perceived and comprehended individually with personal reason and choice, yields translation as identity representation. Thereby, identity has never become an intention of interior design, but plays role more as a media to fulfill the requirement of self actualization.
Keywords: phenomenological semiotic
Arte-Polis 3 International Conference - Creative Collaboration and the Making of Place 556
July HIDAYAT
INTRODUCTION
It is interesting to listen to what is spoken by architect Kazuya Sejima, the winner of Pritzker Architecture 2010, when the juries have highly valued his design masterpiece. It has assumed that the architecture has strong character of identity.
Kazuya stated that he didn’t know that reason as his intension in doing architecture is only for the sake of the user, so people can feel “at home” and use the designed building maximumly.1 The important thing that inspired from his statement is that identity never be the intention of design. It is more crucial to give the users the opportunity to experience and comprehend the design, so at the end it will grow a kind of sense of belonging in the user self. What is expressed by Sejima implies designers need to comprehend the context of both user requirement and preference. It is true that all this time, the designer has used to consider the user data in generate the design requirements, under the jargon of people oriented or user-centered design. But in that condition, the user is kept inactive in the design process. Their role deals merely in contributing the required data about what is needed and wanted. In interior design project, the client requirement is frequently noted as Term of Reference (TOR) that is given to designer before starting the design and taken as reference. Do this thing enough to develop sense of belonging and guarantee the client to stand and familiar with the design? Is it enough to guarantee that in such condition, the communicative function of design will be performed, as design can be fully perceivable and comprehended by its users? When design is successful in developing ‘feel at home’ sense in residential design for example, it is frequently told that the house has the identity, as it represents the owner existence. The study intend to comprehend and promote the design approach which giving opportunity to the users to be involved more actively in design process, in order to develop their sense of belonging.
When observing the interior of the Chinese houses in Cirebon, Semarang and Lasem, apparently the design pattern has existed but with various translations according to the preference and requirement of the dweller. That kind of resistance is part of effort in representing identity. It is more subjective or individual as following the user context or ‘body ground’. This situation differs from common public assumption that in more traditional community, which is communal, the individual identity is determined by the larger group. Thereby, in this case, the structural direction of identity process development is from outside to inside. The individual context is influenced, dominated and even under the hegemony of the society context. In the material culture of architecture and interior design, the communal identity is represented through the usage of ethnical design pattern. The pattern implies the abstraction and generalization of traditional Chinese house. So in general sense, the identity is comprehended as the sameness quality or homogenous character. It is different to what is observed in the field, that identity exactly has related to difference yielded by individual translation to design pattern or codes.
In nowadays public context in general, which is more modern, when information technology, communications and transportation in such a way have grown, enables man to shift both physically and virtually, having contact and experiences numerous culture spaces (shifting in relatively short time), apparently the identity reference no longer possible comes from surrounding context. The comprehension
of locality becomes very liquid as what has been understood as locality is a dialoguing network among different culture spaces. One person will be confronted by many choices of sight or world-view and life styles, along with freedom to discuss and make statements about agreed matters. Exactly this time of shifting and networking as source of knowledge has persuaded the individuals to intervene all kinds of pattern – codes – including the design patterns. They tend to process the codes by their own specification, derived from their individual experiences, so finally the result is also more inclusive in the meaning of taking user into account.
The study dealing with individual intervention or subjective contribution to develop objective knowledge is not a new project. The interest to investigate the irrational dimension or individual subjectivity and integrates it into reason has been started from Hegel (1770-1831), then Heidegger (1889-1976) in line with the idea of phenomenology, Polanyi (1891-1976) and Ponty (1908-1961), when criticizing the quality of positivistic science, that approach of positivistic has failed comprehending the role of individual idea and tacit knowledge in generate the objective science. This group of scientist and philosopher exactly has a notion that inverse the general assumption that the intervention of individual experience is crucial in science development. Before this critical thought arises in significant movement, the subjective value is assumed unscientific. Among this group of thinker, it is interesting to explore the idea of Ponty, because the common conflict relation of binary opposition among objectivity and subjectivity had been synergized in the form of semiotic approach which has the character of phenomenology. The effort to definite the design patterns that is frequently collected in styling and general design guidance is also a part of design science development with positivistic approach. It is produce, for example, a certain traditional Chinese design pattern in residential design for traditional Chinese community all over the world. In reality, the pattern has never been adopted without individual translation, generation by generation, whereas the individual role in design process hasn’t been much studied yet.
Design is part of visual language. The approach of understanding design through the linguistic model is known as semiotic. As language, design stands as communication media. Design is regarded as a tool of submitting message from one communicator to another, from designer to appreciators and consumers.
Design as science uses the language of scientific text approach. In that kind of language model, design becomes a sign system which its relation between signs or syntax is standardized and becomes a formal reference, similar with the scientific and formal spoken language which full of grammatical orders. But in operational reality of daily life interaction, does the language pattern apply? Does design can be perceived as textual language model? One philosopher, who focusing his interest at language as a discourse, than a formal writing text, is Marleau-Ponty (Irawan 2008:18). The theory of Ponty becomes distinctive as promote a special role of individual experience in the process of language formation. The objective of this study is to comprehend, how design as a language is experienced by its user and how in natural ways, the user context take a significant role in making a design, generating sense of belonging which comes from self actualization fulfillment.
Arte-Polis 3 International Conference - Creative Collaboration and the Making of Place 558
July HIDAYAT