Maja Innovative Township Master Plan

This is a master plan proposal for the development of Maja Ecological Innovative Township in Tangerang, Indonesia – a development proposal initiated by the Ministry of Public Housing (KEMENPERA). We particularly to assist the consortia involved in the development of those schemes and provide more detailed information for the local government, which is charged with delivering the policy.

Eco-township is an urban center that is moving toward controlled and sustainable patterns of consumption and growth. It also mean that the development must contribute in the effort of reducing the ecological footprint while simultaneously improving the quality of life for our and future generations within the capacity limits of the township. Eco-towns should be places where it is easy for residents to adopt sustainable lifestyles. This means that the choices offered across all aspects of living and working need to be sustainable ones. Developers need to put in place the foundations to enable this. These will include energy efficient buildings, renewable energy, resource efficient infrastructure and proximity to employment and services. It should also include access to sustainable lifestyle options, services and information to make it the everyday ‘default’ for residents to choose a more sustainable way of living in the eco-town.

Sustainability is about more than resource efficiency: sustainable communities will be well designed and will foster social and economic sustainability. Often the issues are interwoven. For example, sustainable transport options such as cycling and walking reduce environmental impact but also bring benefits for personal health and well-being; walkable communities encourage social connection. It is vital that the eco-towns work well as places. This means in social and economic terms as well as environmental. Our aim is to provide a clear illustration of the core issues that will affect whether a proposal is good enough to be an eco-town, and the criteria against which this can be measured. The development will take on the design approach of integrated urbanism, which include the followings criteria checklist:

1. Human and environmental health 
2. Economic vitality and individual prosperity
3. Energy
4. Housing
5. Urban-rural linkages
6. Mobility and access
7. Education and culture
8. Governance and civic engagement
9. Water
10. Materials and waste

The standards of the desired eco-township should meet include the following as set out in the draft Planning Policy Statement of Eco-Towns, developed by the Town and Country Planning Association and used internationally as the standard guideline in creating eco-townships:

1. Affordable housing: a minimum of 30% affordable housing in each eco-towns.
2. Zero-carbon: eco-towns must be zero-carbon over the course of a year (not including transport emissions).
3. Green space: a minimum of 40% of eco-towns must be green space.
4. Waste and recycling: eco-towns must have higher recycling rates and make use of waste in new ways.
5.  Homes: homes must reach Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 or higher.
6. Employment: at least one job opportunity per house accessible by public transport, walking or cycling.
7. Services: there must be shops and a primary school within easy walk of every single home, and all the services expected from a town of up to 20,000 homes.
8. Transition/construction: facilities should be in place before and during construction.
9. Public transport: real-time public transport information in every home, a public transport link within ten minutes walk of every home.
10. Community: there must be a mixture of housing types and densities, and residents must have a say in how their town is run, by governance in new and innovative ways.

Design team: PT Studio Cilaki 45 (Regional and Town Planning), Antoni Ariadi (Master Plan), Toni Djuliantono (Master Plan and Transportation), Rampakasli (Master Plan and Urban Design),  Isak Ariadhy (Master Plan, Feasibility Studies and Business Plan), Joko Subekti (Development Marketing and Business Plan), Toni Trigayana (Geologist), M. Arief (Detailed Engineering Design)

Museum Nasional - Koridor Perjalanan Indonesia

Koridor Galeri Kota dan Pelayanan Publik 24 Jam

Competition Entry for Sayembara Koridor Kampus Departemen Pekerjaan Umum Indonesia
Design Team: Rampakasli

Diskusi 'I am Always Stammering!' Vol. 3 - As One of Lewis Carroll's

Diskusi 'I am Always Stammering!' Vol. 3 - As One of Lewis Carroll's

Stammerers:

Kumiko Homma

David Hutama

Asti Goenawan

Roy Voragen

Moderator:

Hafiz Amirrol

Date: Friday, 9 September 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 WIB

Venue: LABO. the mori, Jl. Bukit Dago Utara II, No. 22, Bandung, Indonesia

Free and open to public

Living Room in the Forest

Third prize winner for Sayembara Desain Babakan Siliwangi, Bandung

Design Team: Rampakasli in collaboration with local communities of Hegarbudhi

Pena Akhir Pekan Vol 1.1 & 1.2 - Reka Batas Ruang

Pena Akhir Pekan @ ngePAP
Date: Friday, 29 July 2011
Time: 16:00 - 18:00 WIB (Session 1.1), 19:00 - 21:00 WIB (Session 1.2)
Venue: Tobucil, Jl. Aceh No. 56, Bandung 40113


Read berkota for more information.

Regeneration of Decaying Urban Place - Final Presentation

The state of urban and architectural decay of the site has always been a classic case in most urban centers of Asian cities. The center of a city usually always displays urban decays, because development is concentrated too much in these areas. Seeing this almost ubiquitous phenomenon, radical examination and re-assessment on all the planning and design principles that we have used until now is needed. However, there will be no single and definite answer to how city planning for the future should be, but there will only be many options that must be carefully selected before being implemented in each different context of a place. Many urban places in Bandung have experienced unprecedented growth, urban growth and radical changes in recent years. In the process, much of the traditional urban areas have been either damaged, destroyed or badly mutilated, with policy makers often arguing that conserving these areas as being a luxury, which emerging economies can ill afford during the early stages of their development. This is what exactly had happened, and will continue to happen to the downtown area of Jalan Jenderal Sudirman and its surroundings. Once was one of the most important district in Bandung, with all of its potential and rich tissue of urban components, the area is being left to suffer decay and lack of attention, both from policy makers and those involved in the industry of built environment.

Another critical problem that need to be addressed and responded in this thesis is on the issue of planning and zoning. In general terms, rapid changes never happened in an orderly manner. The traditional planning policies and approaches that we have been using over the years failed to accommodate these chaotic and fast changes, while strict planning regulation are not flexible and will only result in stagnant urban condition. Changes and transformation occurs all the time and have been an integral part of the planning process. In this case, the ability to change and adapt is essential to any plans. This ability to adapt is the target of this thesis, challenging single usage zoning, as being practiced now to be replaced. Adoption of modern planning approaches, as those practiced in western cities has done more damage to urban life, as we can witness at the site today. Thus, from all these criticisms, the big issue that will act as the main framework of this thesis is the question of action – Jalan Jenderal Sudirman – quo vadis? 

Tektonika UI

Third Prize Winner for RSPUI Envelope/ Facade Design Competition, Kampus UI Depok 

Design Team: Rampakasli

ITB Tekno 2011 Exhibition

Art direction and graphic design: Hafiz Amirrol and Rampakasli

Content research and development: Ishma Soepriadi

Exhibition information: Pameran Hasil Penelitian ITB 2011

All research and designs are copyright of respective authors and SAPPK ITB. All rights reserved

Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat Desa Awa'ai, Nias, Indonesia

Architectural design and planning: Norazam Abu Samah, Fairus Salehen, Hafiz Amirrol

Structural design: Ir. Razali Idris

Funding: MERCY Malaysia

Construction: Kamaruddin Ibrahim and local community of Desa Awa'ai

Risk Reduction Tectonics - Installation at Datum:KL 2011 Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival

Despite the current brouhaha over problems of natural disaster, man-made disaster, calamity, and so on, the issue of sustainability is not just limited to matters of planning, design and technology. Our experiences in disaster response and recovery activities for the past 10 years assert that the core component in ensuring sustainability, whether in terms of physical or non-physical aspects is the people. In the last decade, the world has witnessed a multitude of natural disaster ranging from the great tsunami of 2004 to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Relief efforts from international agencies have contributed in improving the lives of the disaster victims.

As a medical relief organization, MERCY Malaysia had to widen its areas of expertise within a short period of time. Most of the time, we know little about what to expect, but with the support of volunteers of a multi-faceted background, MERCY Malaysia finally managed to gather most of the required professionals to start its rebuilding and reconstruction projects. With the inception of its Technical Team in 2005, MERCY Malaysia is committed to analyze, research and propose effective means of disaster management by approaching each of our reconstruction projects carefully. This commitment include proposing projects and programs which promotes community participation and enabling them to protect themselves against disaster, which is also known as Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM). Other important aspect in approaching each works are by trying to achieve an understanding for the public and end users in becoming a prepared and responsive community through comparative studies of the effectiveness of processes, guidelines, policies and concepts.

For Datum:KL 2011, we are happy to share with the public our experiences and approaches in some of our disaster response and recovery activities. The commitment from our professional team members that comprise a number of volunteering architects, engineers, surveyors and many others that are involved in the built environment industry and practices have created a solid network that is always ready to contribute in the processes of total disaster risk management.  
                                                                                                      
Installation design and text by Norazam Abu Samah, Fairus Salehen and Hafiz Amirrol
Construction by Kamaruddin Ibrahim
Photo courtesy of Datum:KL 2011

Pleasures of the City

King’s Cross in London, Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur, and Saritem in Bandung are three well-known ‘paradise’ for those hunting for sex services. But what this presentation is more interested in these places are not because they are red light districts of each city, but what do they offer in terms of spectacle of the everyday life, and what pleasures, apart from sexual, that can we experience from these three places?

Contemporary city life is punctuated with confetti-like events and random situations. From an old tourist nervously wandering around with local pimps in Saritem looking for hookers, to a group of gangsters walking through a dark tunnel beating up some guy (remember Alex and his gang in ‘A Clockwork Orange’?), to street vendors selling cheap smuggled kretek at Pasar Chow Kit, city spectacles and everyday actions are a fundamental part of society’s construction.

This presentation has neither specific objectives nor structure. It is just an attempt to share and reveal the latent pleasurable qualities that are offered by city life within places that are ‘notorious’, ‘dirty’, ‘decaying’ and so on. It is part fiction/ non-fiction narrative of the everyday mental mapping of positive and negative occurrences and their spatial associations with visual, signs, sounds and other human senses that leads to the application of 'shock doctrine' to the mind. It is an act of ‘stammering’ around the city, trying to ghostwrite their story invisibly, but invaluably.

Download the presentation.


*Thanks to David Hutama for introducing the idea of 'shock doctrine' to the presentation.

Diskusi 'I am Always Stammering!' Vol.2 - To Be Great (Ghost) Writers

Diskusi 'I am Always Stammering!' Vol. 2 - To Be Great (Ghost) Writers

Stammerers:

Kumiko Homma

Avianti Armand

Asti Goenawan

Hafiz Amirrol

Moderator:

Achmad Tardiyana

Date: Saturday, 2 July 2011

Time: 19:00 - 22:00 WIB

Venue: Rumah Baca, Jalan Mars Dirgahayu, Cukang Kawung, Bandung, Indonesia

Free and open to public

Urban Decay Phenomena in South East Asian Cities

Ultimately, all cities are in a state of continuous transformation and experience periods of growth and decline, both of which lead to transformation of urban space from one economic and social use to another. Transformation put these cities continually in the process of becoming larger, smaller, better, or worse—in one way or another, different than they were in the past. This process of continual transformation occurs partly in response to the political, social, economic, and industrial changes as cited by Middleton (1991). Decay of inner urban space often occurs within the context of such transformation. According to Clark (1989), inner urban decay, crime, racial tension, riots, mass unemployment, and falling standards in the provision of urban services are some of the more obvious and disturbing indicators of a general and deep-seated deterioration in the social, economic, political, and financial fabric of a city. Middleton (1991) points out that such decay leads to out-migration of younger and more skilled members of urban populations as they seek employment elsewhere. The result is that, the population trapped in inner-city areas tends to mainly comprise single parents, unskilled workers, and elderly persons.

Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude (Grogan & Proscio, 2001). Urban decay is akin to the lingering death of a place, in which socioeconomic conditions evolve and opportunities may disappear for the citizens of the place to survive the transformation. Consequently, many people are forced to disassociate themselves from the place and leaving it in a state of disrepair. Urban decay occurs when a part of a city falls into disrepair and abandonment.  Features of a decaying urban place can be in the form of deindustrialization, high unemployment rates, high crime rates, depopulation, desolate-looking landscapes, abandonment of buildings and poor infrastructure. Another characteristic of a decaying urban place is blight – the visual, psychological, and physical effects of living among empty lots, buildings and abandoned houses. Such desolate properties are socially dangerous to the community because they attract criminals and street gangs, contributing to the volume of crime. Urban decay does not have one single cause, but rather a combination of many, including poor urban planning, redlining, poverty, suburbanization and lack of political will to maintain the area into being a decent place to live in. Most of these factors arise as a result of imbalanced socioeconomic conditions, which led to the scarcity of job and economic generator opportunities, thus making most citizens to move away in search of new opportunities. The few citizens who are left behind may compete for scarce opportunities, and seek to draw welfare benefits. This phenomenon inevitably resulted in broken and selfish communities.

Most urban centers in South East Asian countries with market-based economies are often provided with a disproportionate state allocation of human and financial resources. Furthermore, population growth and increasing affluence generated demands for rapid physical expansion of these areas (Lim, 1998). However, most of these urban centers are still not able to accommodate such demands, thus causing unregulated growth and expansion. Where land and financial resources are not well allocated, slums and squatters exist, and led to urban decay. An ideal and healthy city should provide its inhabitants with sufficient space and service. The ratio of space provided should be in balance with the number of the populations. Linkages of places through the provision of good and reliable transportation and public services is important, and the most important function of a good city is to provide the best possible environment and quality of life for everyone who is living and working there. However, this ideal city is rarely found in most South East Asian countries due to many reasons. Such reasons include:

1.     Settlement problems due to the lack of efficiently allocated space and concentration of the population.

2.     Increasing informal sectors, which resulted in influx of low skilled migrants to the city center.

3.     Poor allocation and maintenance of public services and infrastructures.

4.     Wasteful new developments that is not responsive to the real needs of the city’s inhabitants. (i.e. over development of gigantic shopping malls, developments on gazetted public and green areas, etc.)

5.     Inefficient water and waste management systems.

6.     Unsuitable planning policies that fully adopted Western models without any alteration and improvisation to suit local contexts.

7.     Unregulated modification of the built environment that does not respond to the behavioral patterns and culture of the local community.

8.     Weakness in political will and implementation of by-laws and regulations.


In most cases in South East Asian cities, modern developments have transformed historic urban centers into fragmented building blocks that disregard the unique townscape of the place. Sites of dilapidated buildings have been the target for new buildings and often are mediocre in design quality, which fail to respond to the sense of place and its surrounding context. From previous literatures, urban regeneration also includes various definitions that emphasize on different aspects of it. In general terms, it is defined as “a comprehensive and integrated vision and action, which leads to the resolution of urban problems, and which seeks to bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental condition of an area that has been subjected to changes” (Roberts, 2000).  Roberts also classified major aims of urban regeneration into the following five elements:

1.     The relationship between the physical conditions of urban space and social deprivation.

2.     The need to attend to matters of housing and health in urban areas.

3.     The attractiveness of linking social improvement with economic progress.

4.     The containment of urban growth.

5.     The changing role and nature of policy.

*Photos above showing the state of decay around the area of Jl. Jenderal Sudirman in Bandung, Indonesia (taken June 2011).

World Architect Series by IAI Nasional - Guest Lecture by Rem Koolhaas

Continuing the World Architect Series Program, jongArsitek! and Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia Nasional presents a guest lecture by Rem Koolhaas.

Venue: Blitz Megaplex, 8th Floor West Mall, Grand Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
Date: Monday, June 20, 2011
Time: 1530 WIB

Free Entry, please call 021 5304715 or 021 5304722 for reservations. 

*Event and poster courtesy of jongArsitek! and IAI Nasional.