Indonesia: Shared Heritage Laboratory in Semarang

From 28 October until 4 November, the Shared Heritage Laboratory was conducted in Semarang, a city that was recently nominated by Indonesia for World Heritage listing. The case study focused on Kota Lama (Old Town), Pecinan (Chinese quarter), Kampung Malayu (Malay quarter) and Bandarharjo (a fishermen quarter), all connected by the Semarang-river.

Ongoing programme

The Shared Heritage Laboratory, a collaboration between the Institut Teknologi Bandung (Bandung Institute of Technology) and Delft University of Technology, is an ongoing programme that looks into future conservation strategies in built environment with shared cultural heritage as a context. A first workshop was carried out in April 2018 and a second one in October 2018, both in Bandung. The 2019 joint workshop was meant as a preparation for the individual graduation projects of the participating students of the aforementioned universities.

The Semarang edition

During the workshop, the students investigated if and how the historic features of the city can contribute to current social needs. One of the topical issues in Semarang is the abundance of rain and sea water and the lack of suitable drinking water. Because of these issues, the Rotterdam architectural firm MLA+ contributed to the workshop, on the invitation of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. MLA+ has previously studied the local water system with its Indonesian partners and thus the firm’s contribution to the workshop was valuable. The results of the workshop where presented to the local stakeholders and will hopefully help the ongoing debate on Semarang’s future perspectives.

This project was supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.