Accompanied with snacks and coffee on a bright sunny Sunday, I enthusiastically listened to the Emerging Architecture and Urbanism #2 seminar that was part of the BAFFEST 2009 event. It’s a seminar about architecture and urban planning, followed by 4 presenters presenting their experiences and personal works.

The event was opened with a welcoming from Endy Subijono, acting president of IAI, and without further ado, the first session was started by Baskoro Tedjo as the moderator.

The first presenter was Zenin Adrian from Zenin Adrian Design Lab (ZADL) who is trying to apply eco-friendly designs in Indonesia. He tries to observe existing designs and then moves on to develop a new design based on his point of view. Zenin aims to explore materials in his design, for instants, creating wall details out of gunny sacks and krupuk cans. Besides that, he also tries to insert cultural elements into his works, one of them including Mongolia housings.

The next presenter is Heru W. Poerbo from the Urban Design Study Centre (Pusat Studi Urban Desain (PSUD)), sharing with us the development of urban planning. First off is about building plans on Ancol Timur, using land reclamation, which is to heap up the sea level with earth to create new lands. Next is a presentation on reusing the land of Manggarai Station with a few concepts such as urban park, new uses on historic site, and integrated station.

The next session started after lunch break with a performance from Angklung Chamber and Danisworo from PSUD as the moderator.The third presenter is Brian Jan who was involved in several big projects, including London Olympics, Jinji Lake in China, and South Bay Salt Ponds Reservation in California. In this presentation, he explained about his latest project, the Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, Uni Emirat Arab.

Last of all is a presentation from the Governor of Solo, Joko Widodo, most commonly known as Jokowi. Under his leadership, he has succeeded in relocating the scattered and disordered street vendors. The street vendors are then placed together in traditional markets that are clean and orderly, far from the usually dirty market impressions. Jokowi has also succeeded in relocating merchants dealing with secondhand objects who used to gather in Taman Banjarsari, and also renewing the once deserted Taman Balekambang, a genuine heritage from Mangkunegoro VII.

In the end, this seminar was very inspiring and it is hoped to become a trigger in Bandung’s development in the future.