Pendidikan Desain Nusantara:

Mengemas pengalaman pribadi & lokal-komunal, bukan hanya menjejalkan teori, metoda, atau gambar-gambar hasil desain para Eurocentric-Starchitects berlabel "Global"..

Galih W. Pangarsa





Karya arsitek Trong Nghia, Water dan Wind Cafe, 2010, di Binh Duong, Vietnam, yang dikonstruksi tanpa paku sebiji pun; Vietnam pun sebenarnya masih dalam kawasan budaya Nusantara. Pertanyaannya: pekakah arsitek kita pada budaya manusia dan alam Nusantara, kalau sehari-hari ia "disetrika" dengan informasi desain Eurocentric?



esain, ibarat hasil baca sesuatu yang dituliskan kembali. Membaca apa? Sejak dari dalam kandungan, manusia telah belajar. Bahkan --tentu saja bagi yang meyakininya-- sejak dari manusia berada di alam ruh. Manusia adalah homo studens, makhluk yang belajar. Dengan kata lain, makhluk yang berakal. Bagi yang meyakininya, di alam ruh, manusia telah mengenali atau bersaksi terhadap Tuhannya, Allah. Salah satu sifat-Nya, adalah Maha Berilmu. Dengan menyaksikan sifat itu, dalam ruh manusia, tertanamlah benih ilmu dari Sang Pencipta. Di kelak kemudian hari, benih ini wajib ditumbuhkan oleh manusia di dunia. Itulah fungsi utama pendidikan.

Perlu dicatat, bakat-potesi dan jalan hidup atau kodrat tiap-tiap manusia tak sama. Pertanyaannya, bagaimana menumbuhkan benih ilmu yang ditanamkan oleh Sang Pencipta dalam suatu sistem pendidikan yang bersifat massal? Di dunia tempat hidupnya, manusia "membaca" (bahkan sebetulnya diperintahkan membaca: iqraa', bacalah!) dan "menuliskan kembali" hasil baca itu sebagai konsep keilmuan. Demikian pula dalam dunia pendidikan desain. Pertanyaan kedua, bagaimana dunia pendidikan melatihkan membaca fenomena dan sekaligus melatihkan menuliskan kembali hasil-baca fenomena? Di dalam aktifitas desain khususnya pada bidang arsitektur, hanya ada satu jawaban, bahwa peserta pendidikan harus langsung mengalami.

Artinya, ia dapat mencerap fenomena desain yang dihadapinya sekaligus dengan sepasang alat: dengan akal ia memahami, memikirkan, dan mengurai-kuncupkan kenyataan empiris secara intelektual (menginduksi realita yang ditangkapnya secara setapak-demi-setapak menjadi program-program atau programming), dan dengan rasa ia mengerti, merasakan, dan menyimpulkan inti-dasar tata-jalinan fenomena secara spiritual (mendeduksi apa -apa yang ada di balik realita yang ditangkapnya itu "secara tiba-tiba" atau intuitif). Keduanya mesti terpadu. Intuisi harus bisa diterjemahkan secara intelektual dalam konvergensi program; programming harus disertai dengan kepekaan intuisi. Proses desain menuntut: [1] kepekaan alat baca yang terpadu secara intelektual-spiritual, [2] ketepatan cara membaca, [3] keterampilan mentransformasikan apa yang dibaca menjadi desain arsitektur, [4] ketepat-kebijakan untuk mengkomunikasikan karya desain itu pada publik; tanpa kemampuan komunikasi itu, sebuah karya yang sangat baik pun akan gagal diterapkan.

Maka, tak ada pilihan lain kecuali ia harus mengalami fenomena proses desain itu secara langsung. Ini sangat rumit untuk dunia pendidikan arsitektur di Indonesia yang bersifat massal. Bahkan hampir musykil. Belum lagi, sifat dasar media gambar diam atau bergerak (still atau moving image) tak dapat menggantikan REALITA YANG SESUNGGUHNYA. Itulah yang dikatakan oleh John Wooden yang dikutip Sawhney tentang design education: "It is what you learn after you know it all that counts." Pendidikan desain bukanlah menjejalkan teori, metoda, atau gambar hasil desain para starchitects yang Eurocentric...

Sekedar perbandingan pengalaman dalam pendidikan desain, berikut adalah tulisan dari Ravi Sawhney, Chairperson of the IDSA/Business Week Catalyst Case Study Program, mantan head juror of the museum's inaugural California Design Biennial exhibition.

Design Education Can Not be Passively Learned, Nor Painlessly Learned,
Ravi Sawhney, 20 Sep 2011, http://www.core77.com/


"It is what you learn after you know it all that counts." -John Wooden

Over the past year I've read and participated in discussions about design school and the quality of education students currently receive, and thought it would be valuable to share some of my own experiences and what they've taught. The design program I attended in the '70s was a new start-up, with 30-to-1 student-teacher ratios until my senior year. We quickly learned that our instructors weren't equipped to teach everything we needed to know—quite the opposite. Our program's lead professor, in particular, was really behind the times and set in his ways. Disconnected from industry, he had little appetite for embracing new techniques, approaches and technological innovation.

Out of our collective dilemma, we pushed ourselves into new collaborations and individual inquiry, discovering how our profession was led and changing. The understanding and perspective gained has served us well throughout our careers and taught an important lesson—you can't be taught design in the traditional sense of lectures and labs, but you can learn it! We also learned that our design instructors functioned more like coaches—able to provide direction and strategy, offer the voice of experience and inspiration. However, developing and honing the skill set required a commitment to lifelong learning as an individual process.

As students, you must take every opportunity to enrich and optimize your education through inquiry. Having taught design courses myself, I know your instructors will appreciate you even more as they are introduced to new technologies, approaches, insights and experiences you bring to the classroom through this process...nearly as much as they'll take pride in your career achievements. Perhaps you'll even challenge them and they will have to respond in kind.

Be warned your design education will be difficult, painful and never-ending. That said, the reward of creation, of having your ideas become tangible and commercialized while helping improve life even in small ways is truly amazing. The learning pains are worth the rewards—purpose, energy, continual learning, constant challenge and the ability to help others—businesses, the environment and society. As you ready yourselves to the receptivity of learning once again I wanted to share three final thoughts:

1. Experience and failure teach the truly valuable lessons
2. You're not so special—unless you're solving the problems of others
3. You'll have to earn your perspective and that takes time

You'll learn more and retain more through individual experience if receptive to the lessons. Success is career-defining and lends both confidence and credibility to your future endeavors. However, like in most of life, you'll learn the most when things don't go as planned. Failure teaches you to think more holistically, while success often reinforces practices that worked in this instance, but won't translate to others. ...

[kompletnya, silakan baca di Core77 design magazine & resource]