Moritz Henning: Gregorius, you founded d-associates in 2001, at the age of 27. Maria joined soon after. What was it like for young architects in Jakarta in the early 2000s?
Gregorius Yolodi: I graduated in 1998. The economic situation was very bad back then. After the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the entire economic system was on the brink of collapse. There weren’t many career opportunities at the time. When I had nothing to do, I would go to the shopping mall, sit in the food hall and draw, hoping that someone would pass by and say, “Oh, you are an architect! Do you want to design my house?” It never happened, of course [laughs]. The mall was next to the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, so in the afternoon sometimes I went jogging there. One day at the mall, I ran into a friend. He asked me if I wanted to set up an interior design firm together. I said, “Yes, let’s do it.” That’s how it all started. Our first jobs were for a few wealthy clients, the kind who would hire an architect to decorate their home but who want to have a say in every aspect of the design. At some point I told my friend, “Listen, I cannot only do interior design, because my heart is calling for architecture.” In the early 2000s, I started working on my own projects and founded d-associates in 2001.
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