Gatot Kaca is one of the most recognizable puppet characters in Indonesia and is nicknamed iron bone wire muscle. This is what inspired 11 students from the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (FTUI) to design Gatot Tower, a 19-story building that is predicted to have very high revenue efficiency and seismic performance. Gatot Tower’s design brought the FTUI team into the top 10 and won the best poster at the EERI Seismic Design Competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
“The challenge in this competition is to design a tall building that can withstand earthquakes. In addition to strengthening Gatot Tower’s structural design concept, our team also incorporated elements of Indonesian and Salt Lake City local wisdom in the building’s architecture. We took inspiration from the Indonesian stilt house design and the cliff dwelling characteristics of Salt Lake City in designing Gatot Tower,” said FTUI team leader James Andrean Noel.
Together with James, the other FTUI team consisted of students from the Civil Engineering Department and the 2019 FTUI Architecture Department, namely Fahmi Katab, Naufal Budi, Ferdinand Trestanto, Michael Loreantz, Kanaya Diva, Eric Renaldy, Gagas Wicaksana, Juan Fidel, Adinda Khairunnisa, and James Paul Arthur. In designing the Gatot Tower, the FTUI team was guided by FTUI lecturers and professors, Dr. -Eng. Josia Irwan Rastandi, S.T., M.T. and Prof. Ir. Widjojo A. Prakoso, M.Sc., PhD., G. Eng.
“The Gatot Tower building structure is also designed with an inverted area which is a unique design in itself. From an economic point of view, this building has a very high efficiency between revenue and seismic performance. Compared to the average building in the USA which has only 80% revenue efficiency, Gatot Tower is proven to have a revenue efficiency of more than 95%,” said Naufal.
In terms of structural strength, the Gatot Tower building uses balsa material, shear wall technology and shear walls to improve seismic performance capabilities. The Gatot Tower building was able to withstand the earthquake based on ground motion data generated during testing using a vibrating table in front of a jury in Salt Lake City. The building designed by the FTUI team can withstand earthquakes of up to 5.5 SR.
The Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST, M.Eng, IPU expressed his appreciation for the achievements of the FTUI team in the competition which took place on July 1-3, 2022. “It is proven that superior collaboration and teamwork between civil engineering and architecture can produce good building design innovations. I hope this innovation can be implemented in earthquake-prone areas in Indonesia. Problem-solving innovations by the nation’s young generation need full attention and support from all parties to be developed so that they have an impact on society, nation and state,” he said.
