Door and House:
Documenting Gapura in Kampung
Bandung Design Biennale
Solo exhibition
Photography by Fakhrell Saqfan Izzan
Kampung kota within Indonesian urban contexts are pockets of zonally insulated communities. Inhabited by the majority of the national workforce, they are located deep within city centers, providing ease of access to jobs that run the national economy. With the rise of suburbs and gated communities, middle class residential areas are pushed farther away from the city and separates commercial and residential zones, rendering residential kampungs invisible as they merge with impersonal commercial urban centers.
Kampung kota nowadays are mostly hidden from arterial roads, its interior much like a domestic one: private and concealed from view. If we consider the kampung as a domestic interior, a house, then gapuras, gateway entrances to kampungs, are their front doors. Their brightly colored and decorated architecture offer glimpses of the spaces inside. Through its collective construction, gapuras represent the collective identity of the kampung in a pure architectural manner, constantly evolving organically with the residents. Various gapura typologies exist simultaneously, one often vastly different to the other just a few meters away and range in color, form, and materials.
In an attempt to trace the relationship between kampungs and gapuras, this small research project documents gapuras and kampung spaces in Kampung Palawargi Sukajadi, Bandung. This exhibition invites viewers to rethink the way we look at our cities. It is a collection of pictures, drawings, maps, photographs, sounds, ideas, materials, that approaches the kampung and gapura through multiscalar lenses.
Documenting Gapura in Kampung
Bandung Design Biennale
Solo exhibition
Photography by Fakhrell Saqfan Izzan
Kampung kota within Indonesian urban contexts are pockets of zonally insulated communities. Inhabited by the majority of the national workforce, they are located deep within city centers, providing ease of access to jobs that run the national economy. With the rise of suburbs and gated communities, middle class residential areas are pushed farther away from the city and separates commercial and residential zones, rendering residential kampungs invisible as they merge with impersonal commercial urban centers.
Kampung kota nowadays are mostly hidden from arterial roads, its interior much like a domestic one: private and concealed from view. If we consider the kampung as a domestic interior, a house, then gapuras, gateway entrances to kampungs, are their front doors. Their brightly colored and decorated architecture offer glimpses of the spaces inside. Through its collective construction, gapuras represent the collective identity of the kampung in a pure architectural manner, constantly evolving organically with the residents. Various gapura typologies exist simultaneously, one often vastly different to the other just a few meters away and range in color, form, and materials.
In an attempt to trace the relationship between kampungs and gapuras, this small research project documents gapuras and kampung spaces in Kampung Palawargi Sukajadi, Bandung. This exhibition invites viewers to rethink the way we look at our cities. It is a collection of pictures, drawings, maps, photographs, sounds, ideas, materials, that approaches the kampung and gapura through multiscalar lenses.
