Pride before Function

Yesterday’s Kompas featured several articles on consumption. One of the articles here noted that according to AC Nielsen study, 93% of Indonesian consumers are recreational shoppers, while “only” 68% of American society –known as consumer society – are recreational shoppers [1]. Consumption of goods contributed to 66.5% of Indonesian gross national production in 2004, and it increased to 74% in year 2005.

In another article here, Rhenald Kasali noted that in Indonesian society:

Derajat seseorang dinilai berdasarkan apa yang Anda miliki atau apa yang Anda pakai. Untuk menunjukkan jati dirinya orang cenderung berbelanja berlebihan.

This may explain similar attitude in design of houses in Indonesia, where consumption rules. If you wonder what I mean, all you need to do is to drive along upper housing complexes part of Pantai Indah Kapuk, Pondok Indah (the main avenue), or Lippo Karawaci and you’ll see houses that look like wedding cakes (the extremely elaborate one with curly icings), in more elaborate shapes and colors, but in a scale so huge you’ll start wondering how many families actually live there.

My sister Yenna, who is a branding consultant, calls this “Pride before Function”. The term “Form Follows Function” (a principal associated with modernism movement in architecture) means that function should be the foundation for design and therefore guide the resulting form. The term “Pride before Function” means that whatever form the design takes and however well the design functions are not as important as the pride and prestige that the design would bring to the owners.

Following the quotation above, Rhenald Kasali wrote:

Prinsip ini berbeda benar dengan upaya membangun karakter bangsa yang menekankan pada kekuatan jati diri, mulai dari kematangan berpikir, kerendahhatian, pendidikan, dan kepedulian sosialnya.

Pretty scary, huh?

Note
[1]. The article mentioned that AC Nielsen survey covered only consumers with access to internet, only 8% of Indonesian society.