(2012)
Team Leader : Kemas Ridwan Kurniawan
Team Member :
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Skylines of urban transformation in Muntok: from vernacular tin town to post-vernacular one – source: i from M.Isa Djamaluddin, ii & iii from private collections.
After the tin mining price’s crises in 1980s and 1990s, the pressure of modern urbanization has threatened the characteristics of Muntok traditional hybrid settlements. Due to economical pragmatism, the hybrid vernacular of Muntok slowly was changed into post-traditional high-concrete buildings, not for human occupation, but for nurturing swallow-bird nests which have high economic value. The Muntok skyline now has changed from a horizontal skyline of traditional buildings to vertical concrete swallow-bird nesting structures.
This research tries to intersect history (time) with space/place, people and power/policy. It tries to examine and challenge the ideas of contemporary traditional settlement by taking urban traditional kampongs in Muntok as the case study. How and what kind of historical process occurred? What is the meaning of ‘place’ today in relation to tin mining urban traditional heritage and economic pragmatism of modern urbanization?
