VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages
Abstract
This study explores formal and informal inhabitation in Semarang Old Town, a revitalised Dutch colonial city now one of Indonesia’s National Heritage Sites. The formal revitalisation efforts by the government since 2016 resulted in significant physical and socio-economical changes. Nowadays, Semarang Old Town has many restored Dutch architecture-style heritage buildings with new functions and paved streets with decorative street furniture. The new functions, the improved infrastructure and the relocation of previous informal inhabitation led to a socio-economical change in the area, arguably indicating gentrification. However, within this revitalised area, there are still some empty, abandoned and decaying buildings that host informal inhabitation by local people that arguably also give new functions to the decaying buildings. These phenomena reflect the idea of counterpreservation, a preservation approach that embraces decay and views its appropriation as a design strategy which involves material, spatial and aesthetic creation (Sandler, 2016), which is quite a contrast to the current revitalisation and preservation practice. This study will read this contrasting formal/informal inhabitation by drawing reflective elevation and object mapping around the façades of both revitalised and decaying buildings. The result indicates that decaying buildings have a porous quality that invites and facilitates informal inhabitation, which shapes the socio-spatial and socio-economical role of the buildings. This porosity and the idea of counterpreservation situate the decaying buildings in Semarang Old Town to exist as thirdspace (Soja, 1996) in a revitalised urban heritage site.
Having completed her Bachelor of Architecture at Universitas Indonesia and MA in Art, Space and Nature at The University of Edinburgh, Diandra Saginatari is currently a PhD Student in Architecture, Culture and Tectonics Research Group, DABE, University of Nottingham. She is also a lecturer at the Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia. Her current PhD project explores the notion of porosity as an architectural condition that can unravel such a connection, especially between materiality and spatiality in architecture.
Prof Jonathan Hale is an architect and Professor of Architectural Theory in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. He is Head of the Architecture, Culture and Tectonics research group (ACT) and Convenor for Architectural Humanities II, and Design, Culture & Context modules. Research interests include: architectural theory and criticism; phenomenology and the philosophy of technology; the relationship between architecture and the body; museums and architectural exhibitions. He has published books, chapters, refereed articles and conference papers in these areas and has obtained grants from the EPSRC, the Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, and the Arts Council. He is founder and current steering group member of the international subject network: Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA); a member of the interdisciplinary Science, Technology and Culture research group, hosted by the Dept of French, and a Management Board member for the University’s Research Priority Area in Creative and Cultural Industries.
Tim has been Course Director of MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) since September 2019. Prior to this he spent 22 years as a practitioner working on a variety of RIBA award-winning projects at two leading architecture practices, 6a architects for three years and Caruso St John Architects for 14 years. Tim was responsible for the Newport Street Gallery which won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2016. Tim has a long association with Nottingham, having taught design on the MArch Part 2 course since 2012 and prior to that worked on Nottingham Contemporary, completed 2010, while at Caruso St John Architects. Tim received his MArch (distinction) degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada (1996). Prior to studying architecture Tim was a geotechnical engineer, building earth dams for the mining industry in British Columbia, and holds a BASc degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (1986).
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Thursday 29th June, 2023