Maria Matilda Salim

This project began with the question: “How can architecture and our urban landscape foster community resilience, empathy, curiosity, and critical thinking?”

Located in my hometown Bogor City, Indonesia, the existing site is a seven-storey unfinished concrete building that has been abandoned for over 20 years. Located in a dense and busy commercial area, I have reprogrammed this building and the site around it as a community-oriented space with a variety of activities, including an urban garden, play areas, a library, a kitchen, communal working spaces, studios, cafe’s, and a public gallery. These selected programs are based on conversations with the people of Bogor from different generations and backgrounds along the lines of ‘change’, such as their experiences in the city and how it has changed over the years, what they like about the city and its people, what they want improved, and more.

This design incorporates activities that would encourage more interaction between different groups of people, create opportunities for learning and curiosity in an equitable manner, support informal economies and small businesses, shift the paradigm around green public spaces, and hopefully create a sense of place. Additionally, program is designed to reintroduce pride for one’s own culture and pass down traditional art, craft, food, and knowledge, which has slowly disappeared from everyday life.

A big thank you to Mark Hunter for kindly sharing his time and expertise with me to create the site model.

This project was funded in part by the S.E.A.

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