In December 2021 I graduated from Diponegoro University (UNDIP) with a Bachelor of Architecture, cum laude, with a GPA of 3.65 out of 4.00. The degree ran from August 2017 to December 2021, and it is still the foundation under everything I do, including the work that has nothing to do with buildings.
What I studied
My specialisation was green building, sustainable architecture, together with tourism design. Three projects define those years for me. In 2020 I designed a three-star resort hotel in Guci, and in the same year I took on a redesign of the UNDIP university library. In 2021 the graduation project was a four-star resort hotel on a beach site in Jepara, later published as a poster: a tourism programme shaped by the climate, with a curved block that faces the sea and a lattice skin that keeps direct sun off the facades.
Alongside the coursework I was running LAB.in Studio from September 2020, producing 3D visualisation for clients, so the studio projects and the paid ones informed each other. The competencies I took from the degree are project planning, architectural visualisation and design-thinking methodology, plus one that no syllabus lists: the habit of defending a decision in front of a jury.
What stayed with me
Architecture school teaches you to draw the structure first and let the surface be playful afterwards. That order turned out to be portable. It is how I approached contract claims at a state-owned contractor, how I plan a content series, and how I design an AI system today: fix the load-bearing logic, verify it, then design the experience on top. The cum laude line on the certificate matters less to me than that habit, but I am glad the two arrived together.
Questions people ask
- He studied architecture at Diponegoro University (UNDIP) from 2017 to 2021 and graduated cum laude with a 3.65 GPA. He later took the MM New Ventures Innovation programme at Prasetiya Mulya University.
- A 4-star green-building beach resort in Jepara, completed in 2021.
