Bondan Petra Diponegoro

First-Hand Experience in Education Impacts One's Career

Bondan Petra Dipenegoro, UPH’s Architecture alumni cohort 2011 is one of the architect representatives commissioned by Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture to supervise a traditional village called Gurusina’s revitalization. Gurusina, located at Ngada district, East Nusa Tenggara, was devastated during a wildfire in summer 2018. 27 out of 33 traditional houses and 6 other traditional structures are gone by the fire. The help provided by the government did not only serve to revitalize the community’s living area, but also to keep the culture values shared through those houses don’t just disappear. With that said, Bondan’s role in this task is not limited to monitoring progress developments, but more so in planning for adaptation and disaster mitigation to minimize the impact of similar disasters in the future. During the process of rebuilding Gurusina, Bondan admits having learnt many valuable lessons, especially to respect the building materials provided by nature. While also reminding the community to value their tradition and culture, Bondan shared his experience in a book he wrote with his colleague, called “The Extraordinary of the Ordinary Gurusina”. Although this is not the first project trusted to him, the process of rebuilding Gurusina felt right for Bondan to be able to implement the knowledge he’s gained during his studies at UPH. As a collaborator at Fomologix lab, Bondan believed that going to UPH was has interesting story of its own. “A lot of my education process was first-hand experience where we became a part of the experiment of the education, always bearing Indonesia as our general context in mind,” he says. Up till this very day, Bondan maintained a good relationship with his colleagues and lecturers. They have motivated Bondan to keep learning and not be easily satisfied with one project or activity. Bondan advised for current students at UPH to be more independent in determining their future according to each goal without having to be burdened with limitations in developing themselves. Bondan believed that not only is those formed in a good education environment will have a good impact for the community and environment, but also that nothing is impossible, whether it be continuing a current project or restarting in a new career.