Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980.

The migration by large numbers of rural people to Jakarta because of the poverty of their villages can be reversed if effective action is taken in the peasant communities. This Pesantren is a rural co-educational boarding school, a traditional Islamic educational establishment, which trains young people to assist the villages in reversing their decline. To establish sound interactive relationships between itself and the surrounding villages, the institution offers, in addition to its general education and practical skills programme, agricultural and medical services as well as training in building construction. In the latter programme students and villagers are taught the use of local resources, materials and technologies, and the means to integrate traditional rural design elements with modern materials and systems. The Pesantren's buildings, constructed by the students, show, in the words of the jury, "the promise of attaining a fuller architectural expression, discernible in the organisation of spaces and levels in the landscape. Although no striking architectural innovations are apparent at this time, this institution is capable of evolving an indigenous architectural expression responsive to modern rural needs."

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture