KPF celebrates groundbreaking of Sequis Centre in Jakarta

The Sequis Centre Tower paves a new direction for Jakarta’s future growth, not only redefining the CBD skyline, but also setting a new standard for sustainability within Indonesia’s burgeoning economy.

Situated in the heart of the Jakarta Capital Region and adjacent to the existing Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, the new Sudirman CBD has become one of city’s most important new urban developments. The design of the Sequis Centre Tower, which is derived from its site’s environmental, cultural and social patterns, is a reinterpretation of the typical Jakarta office tower, as well as a new urban paradigm for the district. As a response to Jakarta’s conventional all-glass rectilinear office building, the project, in the spirit of the local Banyan tree, “organically rises from the ground as a series of finely scaled elements, culminating in a richly detailed and shaded tower above” in the words of KPF Design Principal Robert Whitlock, AIA.

The tower is comprised of multiple programs that complement one another, as well as the surrounding community, including office space, executive zones, trading floors, boutique retail, restaurants, conference centers, heath facilities, and concealed parking that fully supports the project. In response to the diverse program, the building’s massing “recomposes an extruded tower into four bundled and deflected super-tubes that, in the spirit of the local landscape, emerge naturally from the site,” explains Senior Designer and KPF Director Jeffrey Kenoff, AIA. “These volumes generate unique office types, inherently increase the vertical presence of the tower, and create greater structural stability in an active seismic zone.” At the top of the tower, the tubes vary in height to form multiple grand sky-gardens overlooking the city, while at the podium they extend outward to support larger office floors and increase pedestrian porosity through the site.

In contrast to the standard Jakarta CBD model, in which traffic and parking govern pedestrian connectivity, the tower’s vehicular infrastructure is submerged and on-site traffic circulation is located below ground. This configuration frees up the ground plane for green area and pedestrian circulation where adjacent sites are linked by a densely landscaped pedestrian street, which also mends the seam between the new Sequis Centre Tower and the existing Sequis Centre. Adds Kenoff, “The parking deck hovers above the public space, facilitating porosity and active program at several pedestrian levels.” The hovering deck not only eliminates blank walls from pedestrian zones, it also increases building security through transparency and use—a significant challenge for an office building in Jakarta. Cantilevered over the pedestrian path at grade, the deck forms an outdoor public room shielded from the intense equatorial sun and seasonal rain. Lastly, the roof of the deck connects to inner public spaces, forming an elevated park that expands the public, urban realm.

The project, which recently received a 2013 MIPIM Asia award, is currently planned to be the first LEED Platinum building in Indonesia. According to design team leader Andy Vann, “Multiple sustainable strategies have been integrated throughout the building’s design—particularly within its envelope.” A gradation of shading fins and panels are arrayed across the tower’s curtain wall, which is optimized on each side to compensate for façade-specific solar radiation levels. High-efficiency systems and the use of locally-sourced and recycled materials reduce the amount of energy used and embedded in the tower. In addition, native vegetation will be used for the site landscaping and roof gardens, both of which are watered with storm water retention systems employed on site.

The Sequis Centre Tower reimagines the project as a constituent of the urban traffic within the CBD. It strategically reunites the currently-fractured flow into a sinuous strip of pedestrian connectivity, supplements the community with a rich diversity of new program, and purposefully moves inaccessible uses away from the pedestrian experience.