The Hindu Business Line : An Indian touch to Indonesian bank museum

A Rs 5-crore design project will see India's Elephant Strategy+ Design, Singapore's Immortal Design and Indonesia's BD&A, setting up a museum that will showcase Indonesian culture, heritage and history to locals and overseas visitors.

Pune , Jan. 26

INDONESIA'S central bank, Bank Indonesia has initiated an exercise to get closer to its customers and educate the citizenry of its role in developing a stable economy.

The bank's customer outreach programme will come with a distinct Indian flavour with the Pune-based design house, Elephant Strategy+Design, being part of a three-member design consortium that has been roped in by the bank for this project.

Phase one of the estimated Rs 5-crore design project will see the consortium, comprising Elephant Strategy+ Design, Singapore's Immortal Design and Indonesia's BD&A, setting up a museum that will showcase the country's culture, heritage and history to locals and overseas visitors.

The museum will be housed in the bank's former home, a charming 1920s building in Jakarta with strong Dutch architectural influences, Ms Ashwini Deshpande, Director, Elephant Strategy, told Business Line.

"The country, which was under Dutch rule, has gone through lots of flux due to various industrial and political movements, and the bank felt it should reach out to the people and make them aware of the financial responsibilities it shoulders and the people's role in creating a stronger economy,'' Ms Deshpande said.

The company, which is part of Design Alliance, a consortium of 11 design consultancies from Asia, was invited by BD+A to join the project to leverage its experience in working with banks among other things for branding, creating experiential spaces and interactive exhibitions.

Elephant Strategy has implemented branding and retail space design work for ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. Singapore's Immortal Design was roped in for its experience in working on the Asian Civilization's Museum.

Work on converting a 40,000-sq-ft area within the heritage Dutch building is currently in the design finalising stage and will be complete by June, according to Ms Deshpande, who said the museum would be complete and open to people to visit by June 2007.

Visitors to the museum can expect a tech-rich experience with the consortium planning to use virtual reality, laser shows and sensor-activated talking heads that will talk to them about various aspects of the country's financial history and its currency, among other things. In addition to designing the museum interiors, Elephant Strategy will also curate the artefacts that will be housed within the museum.

"The bank's vaults are a virtual treasure trove of memorabilia and include huge amounts of Dutch gems and jewellery that got left behind when they exited the country, old property documents and even the first ATM machine that the bank approved for one of its domestic banks,'' Ms Deshpande said.

"In addition to promoting goodwill about the Indonesian economy and generating a positive perception about the bank, it is also hoping that the project will build a mechanism of transparency between the bank and the people,'' she said.