Garden of Wisdom

Have you ever wondered that the entire world is actually a giant book, a fundamental teacher, a source of wisdom in itself, and those who do not explore it have only read one page. Therefore the availability of this ‘first hand’ source of life and knowledge for the next generation becomes an ever-increasingly important agenda in line with other ‘second hand’ education in the form of books, internet, and many more. Ironically, this giant book is on the verge of destruction, many of its pages are burnt down and forcefully shifted in order to fulfil human ego. In the midst of this increasing pressure, The Garden of Wisdom is presented in an attempt to collaborate the needs of education and conservation spaces in a responsible manner.

This 5-storied high building features an extensive green skin that circles, expands, and narrows around the building from basement into the rooftop level that could act as a source of knowledge, protection from the harsh sea breeze and tropical sunlight, various activity spaces, circulation path, food & medicine, and also a service access around the facility. The whole building is home for various Indonesia’s endemic vegetation species arranged in a way to stimulate their ideal living condition, you can find a cave-inspired low-light habitat near the basement, forest floor ecosystem in the ground floor, mangrove ecosystem near the south end, smaller high-light vegetation along the perimeter, and canopy ecosystem at the upper levels. This vegetative skin is further supported by various active and passive systems such as a central atrium, daylight and natural ventilation all over the building, rainwater recycling, and solar panels to achieve a performative building. This extensive list of features collaborate to achieve the ideal conditions for the books, plants, environment, and humans to benefit from each other in a responsible manner.