8 Somapah Road
Synopsis
This presentation explores the idea of the provisional city, an urban setting purposely envisaged and accepted for the present time, but likely to change later. In recent years, increasing research has been done on the temporary use of space. Limited attention has been given to the provisional, understood not only as an actual form of space production but as a negotiated space produced by individuals to overcome precarious daily life conditions and to compensate for deficiencies within an urban context. Using central Jakarta as a backdrop, this presentation aims to explain how and why some everyday situations which produce provisional space manage to become permanent while others simply disappear. Provisional could be imagined as actions within a space where rigid rules and social conventions become malleable or do not apply at all if the non-application is considered temporary or framed within a temporal hiatus or an extraordinary period in an individual’s life. Yet, as extended areas in Jakarta show, by indefinitely expanding such time, users could potentially transform the provisional into a permanent space or practice.
About the Speaker
Rafael Martinez is a Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research focuses on mainland and insular cities in Southeast Asia and involves recycling of sacred places and the production of ephemeral and provisional space. Along with an interest in urban mobilities and temporary identities, Rafael is currently working on a project focusing a variety of issues, including development, urban planning, policy-making, citizen participation and decision-making processes in Southeast Asian megacities, including Phnom Penh, Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta.
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