A blog on what I have been seeing in terms of the construction here in Indonesia. You might skip this blog thinking its boring but there is a huge difference. One I believe because Australia regulations bring forth the Australia Standards all builders and subcontractors have to fulfill when completing construction in Australia. Looking at what is constructed in Indonesia I can tell straight away that Indonesia does not have the same standards we have here in Indonesia in terms of the construction industry. It's not a case of dodgy builders or cutting corners in Indonesia, its more the case of they have a different reality in which they construct and different standards they aim to achieve in order to fulfill client satisfaction.
First things first:
HUGE CRACKS IN THE WALLS
Everywhere I went, every building I visited in Indonesia had cracks in it. And not the tiny ones you patch up either. Some of them span the entire length of the wall. They are locate on the inside and outside of the building. Because these buildings are Indonesia the building may experience Earth Movement from all the earth quakes that occur in the country. Cracks can form from the building being to ridged and not flowing with the movement.
Small Foundations
Another reasons I assume the cracks there is because of the soil the buildings are built on is clay. Clay expands and shrinks depending on how much moisture it's carrying. This caused the foundations to move due to pressure. Most of the buildings are made of concrete or brick depending on the financial resources available to the owner. When the building itself is all built and held solid into place, but the foundations are moving cracks will start to show in weak points of the rigid building as it tries to follow the movement of the foundations.
Yes, this Electrical Wire is Balancing on a Thin Stick of Bamboo...
Continuing the Edge of the Path, by Hand.
So a few images here. It's to express something I noticed in Indonesia that's based within the construction industry. From what I have seen it's not hard to say that there basically isn't the technology around to support the construction standards we have here in Australia. But technology isn't always about supporting the standards of what is produced, also how efficiently and effectively it is produced within the time frame.
The second picture shows a man setting bricks and concrete by hand. Of course it's done by hand here. But not the mixing of cement. Scaffolding (a temporary structure to support people and materials throughout construction or repair of buildings) here in Australia is steel, has strong supports and needs to be checked by a scaffolder to make sure that it's not going to blow over and kill people. Indonesia on the other hand, prefers to use a cheaper alternative - bamboo. Which can be illustrated in the first picture.
After all, what do we use to hold up electrical wires here in Australia, usually steel, or it's placed underground. Sometimes I saw that buildings didn't even have scaffolding, instead the workers were made to stand on the window sills of the building to do their construction tasks. I looked on in shock, hoping against all hope I wouldn't have to watch any of them fall.
But amongst all this, I found something amazing and ancient. It's to do with the construction of the Ancient Buddhist temple in Jogjakata.
Beautiful!
As you can see, the walls are made from stone bricks. And there (from memory) near four levels of these walls, all individual carved stone, with an individual picture. That some how got placed in the perfect spot, to together with the other carved stones beside it tell the stories of that time. It was an amazing place, and you could just fill the era all these stones came from. But a question remained, how the hell did they know where which brick went so they all lined up in the perfect spot? I of course found my answer!
Can you see the markings?
IT"S AMAZING! The markings they match the brick next to them. Of course it's nothing new discovered, but without a (proper) guide to the temple telling us all its secrets, it was nice I could find them out by sheer curiosity and luck myself. But it's so nice seeing construction from a ancient era. It's so innovative and creative. It's breath taking to just imagine the construction site of this temple!
That's really all from me in terms of this blog. Being a construction management student of course I would look for things related to my discipline. I just wanted to share what I saw, noticed and learned.
Love you all!!
xo shez
