9. URBANISING REGIONS

This section showcases three studios have tackled issues related to the effects of rapid urbanisation at the fringes of many Southeast Asian megacities.

AY 14/15-2 LA5702

Key Themes

Landscape impact of urbanisation; Ruralurban migration; Urbanising fringes of Southeast Asian cities; Critical sustainability challenges

Bottomless Bali: An Endless City without Infrastructure

Tutor: Rekittke Joerg

Students: Feng Yuanqiu, Goh Weixiang, Hu Zhijie, Kow Xiao Jun, Loh Peiqi, Uraiwan Songmunstapon, Wan Jing, Xu Haohui, Xu Lanjun, Xu Yan, Zhang Shangyu

AY 15/16-2 LA4702

Landscape Architectural Approaches For An Urbanizing Agricultural Region, Sukabumi

Tutor: Hwang Yun Hye, Feng Yuanqiu

(With support from Bogor University)

Students: Chang Mei Fen Pearlyn, Chen Jumin, Chen Wei, Liu Yuahua, Pu Wenjun, Qian Xuanyu, Su Yuting, Tan Wenbin, Wang Yuqian, Zhang Qingqing, Yang Ruijie, Chung Chen

AY 18/19-2 LA5702

Kota Harapan Indah

Tutor: Herbert Dreiseitl

(With support from Dumai Putra Group)

Students: Wang Hanfeng, Xu Yuexin, Yong Keng-Whye Raymond, Kong Lingchang, Kuan Wai Tuck Victor, Liu Xiaolei, Xu Linxin, Yao Haomu, Wang Zhe, Lam Si Yun Swan, Gao Chenchen

Much of Asia is urbanizing rapidly. New cities are planned and built, young people migrate in large numbers from rural regions to urban centres, and agricultural land is converted to residential, commercial and industrial uses, all at an astonishing pace. How do we manage the landscape impacts of this frenzied urbanization? In light of our growing understanding of critical sustainability challenges, how should new cities in tropical Asia be planned and designed? The three studios under this theme explored the urbanizing fringes of Southeast Asian cities.

BOTTOMLESS BALI, group work by MLA’15 analysed the impact of rapid urbanization in Canggu. Many paddy fields are sold and converted into “villas” to accommodate visitors and meet the demand for holiday homes in Bali.

DESIGN CONCEPT |THE STORYOF ECOSTELLAR

Rejoint water system | Re-link ecological corridors | Re- establish external-connections these blue, green and mobility connections form the urban fabric of Ecostellar

D4 CELEBRATION

D3 OPTIMIZATION

MASTERPLAN |ITERATIONS / PROCESSES

D2 ADAPTATION

ECOSTELLAR by Gao Chenchen, Wang Hanfeng, and Kuan Victor (MLA’19) created a dynamic and integrated network by restoring hydrologic regimes, linking fragmented ecological systems and establishing connections between blue, green and grey elements of the urban fabric.

In Bottomless Bali (AY14/15 – SEM 2), the studio found itself in Canggu, a Balinese town that is briskly shifting its core business from rice farming to surfing tourism. For its wellpreserved cultural practices, carefully cultivated paddy landscapes, and excellent waves, Bali has long been the subject of tourist romanticism and fascination. Today, tourism accounts for approximately 80% of the island’s economy. To accommodate visitors and meet foreigners’ demand for holiday homes in Bali, paddy fields are sold and converted into “villas”. This presents two critical problems. First, despite the modern and luxurious appearance of these new constructions, they are not built with sufficient waste treatment infrastructure, threatening the safety of food production in adjacent rice fields. Second, rice production in Bali relies on the careful management of water as it flows from paddies upstream to downstream, and the fragmentation of the water system by “villa” construction disrupts existing water sharing arrangements. The design proposal sought to address these two critical issues.

Landscape of Necessity 04 (AY15/16 – SEM 2) took place in Sukamaju village, an urbanizing town within the Jakarta Metropolitan region in Indonesia. Sukamaju is strategically located along a transport infrastructure that connects major metropolitan areas – Jakarta, Bogor, Sukabumi city and the Pelabuhan Ratu Bay. The village continues to grow and expand due to its economically critical location. The village faces problems caused by rapid and unregulated urbanization in an agricultural region: everincreasing traffic volume, economic inequality, and unemployment. Students sought to address some of these problems through landscape architectural interventions, proposing schemes to promote socio-economic resilience, alleviate traffic congestion and pre-empt anticipated impacts of continued urbanization in residential neighbourhoods.

Kota Harapan Indah (AY18/19 – SEM 2) is a proposed new city development in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region that is anticipated to house 125,000 households on a 2,200ha plot. KHI aims to be the most liveable city in Indonesia – compact, mixed-used, transitoriented and sustainable. Presently, the site is a typical peri-urban region in Indonesia, comprising urban residences, agricultural areas, villages, and remnant mangrove forests. The studio partnered with Indonesian developer Damai Putra Group to generate landscape design schemes for a development to enhance waterfront resilience, showcase valuable cultural heritage, and preserve the integrity of ecologically valuable habitats. Students studied the socio-cultural and ecological context of the site in detail to arrive at three design proposals for the new city.

BORDERLESS JOURNEY by Zhang Qingqing, Pu Wenjun, Chen Wei, and Yang Ruijie (MLA’17) capitalised on the natural beauty and topography of the region to create a scenic drive with a few carefully inserted tourism developments, to create job opportunities and generate new forms of income for local communities.

Related Outcomes Studiobook

Hwang, Y. H. (Editor), 2016, Landscape of necessity 04: Landscape Architectural approaches for a sustainable oil-palm plantation community in Indonesia (collaboration with Bogor University)