On “Multitude” and the Urban Question: Reading in Times of Pandemics

“Multitude” is a term popularized by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt to conceptualize the labor condition and its political possibilities in the post-Fordist regime of capital accumulation. This paper seeks to explore such a concept in the context of an Indonesian city. It argues that the Indonesian multitude is formed through the worldwide division of labor, which involves the urban majorities whose work cut across formal and informal sectors. It teases out the absence of the “urban question” in the Indonesian city as a context for understanding the challenges faced by the Indonesian multitude. The paper (in light of post-pandemic) calls for the role of the state to serve as a medium for achieving societal goals and a guarantor of public access to Universal Basic Assets covering education, health, housing, technology, and information

Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker & Vincent Van Romondt:

In this booklet, the architectural theorist and Professor at York University Abidin Kusno discusses two lectures given by two influential professors in the former Dutch colony of Indonesia. The first one, ‘The aesthetics of architecture and the art of the moderns’, was given by C. Wolff Schoemaker in 1930. The second, entitled ‘Towards an Indonesian Architecture’, was delivered by Vincent Van Romondt in 1954. Schoemaker and Van Romondt held different views on the challenges of architecture in the world as well as in Indonesia. They nevertheless both sought to bring the notion of modernism and tradition into the context of their time. The lectures are published here for the first time in English

Gunawan Tjahjono & Josef Prijotomo:

In 2002, Gunawan Tjahjono opened his inaugural speech at University of Indonesia with a reference to Vincent Van Romondt, the last remaining Dutch tutor of architecture in Indonesia, who had pioneered an approach that challenged Indonesians to think about the relationship between architecture and ‘nationbuilding’. Since independence, the topic of ‘towards an Indonesian architecture,’ has received various interpretations, with numerous references to Van Romondt. Josef Prijotomo, one of the most respected Indonesian architectural theorists, for instance, wrote an article in a newspaper in 1982 entitled: ‘Van Romondt dan peran arsitekt Indonesia [Van Romondt and the role of Indonesian architects]’. Prijotomo reminded Indonesian architects of Van Romondt’s inaugural speech and his emphasis on the importance of architecture in the nation-building of postcolonial Indonesian society. He also revisited Van Romondt’s question of whether social and cultural values of Indonesia could be the foundation for the construction of architects’ identities in this time of transition. Indonesia is a postcolonial country, and its architects engage with the spirit of decolonization by coming to terms with (instead of ignoring) their colonial past. This reflection on inaugural lectures delivered by Indonesian professors in the postcolonial era reveals a simultaneous identification with and problematization of a Dutch/European legacy of architecture.  This booklet seeks to explore the theme of architecture and postcolonialism by focusing on the inaugural lectures of Gunawan Tjahjono and Josef Prijotomo as symptomatic responses to a postcolonial condition, in an effort to construct or re-work an ‘Indonesian architecture’ – a theme that was central to Van Romondt’s inaugural lecture. It addresses this theme by considering the political context against which their lectures emerged. We start with a brief and discursive discussion of institutional shifts in architecture at the time of transition, from a more technical sphere to ‘architecture’ and how such a shift has shaped architectural thinking beyond the technical, to capture the social. The discussions provide context for understanding the theme of post colonialism in the inaugural lectures of Gunawan Tjahjono and Josef Prijotomo

The Social Life of Flooding in Jakarta

The issues around flooding have increasingly received attention in a variety of fields, and Jakarta has been a primary case study. Jakartans, at different times and under different circumstances, make sense of flooding and assign “agency” to human activity, nature, the supernatural and infrastructure

Housing the Margin: Perumahan Rakyat and the Future Urban Form of Jakarta

Page range: 23-56"Housing the Margin” analyzes current national housing policies for the urban poor and their effects on citizenship and urban form in Jakarta. It looks at the way in which the pro-poor housing program has been integrated into urban renewal, land certification, and “slum free initiatives” of the city. It argues that the new housing program for the poor operates under a condition of neoliberalism that demands an integration of the land market, a displacement of the poor to the fringes of the city, and a change in the future geography of Jakarta

Ruang Publik, Identitas dan memori kolektif: Jakarta Pasca - Suharto

Yogyakartaxxiv, 208 p, Gmb, 23 cm

Behind The Postcolonial : Architecture, Urban Space And Political Cultures In Indonesia

xiii, 250 hlm., gamb., index, 24 c

Globalization, the city and civil society in Pacific Asia : [book review]

Arts, Faculty ofAsian Research, Institute ofUnreviewedFacult