Ouroboros: Gamification to Transform a ‘Trash-scape’ | FuturArc Prize 2024 First Place

Ouroboros is an ancient circular symbol of a snake/serpent or dragon eating its own tail, signifying variously infinity and the cycle of birth and death. It is one of the oldest mythical emblems in the world that represents fundamental concepts of life.

Of this age-old never-ending ‘loop’, this entry seeks to present a modern interpretation and approach to ‘renewal’ based on a landfill setting and its contents, transposing ‘endings’ into ‘beginnings’ through an intricate system of architectural gamification and multi-layered interventions.

The selected site, an open-dumping landfill in Tangerang, made national headlines in October 2023 as its methane-heavy mounds went ablaze for nearly two weeks—destroying 80 per cent of the facilities^{1, 2} and expelling hazardous fumes to kilometres beyond the 35-hectare landfill.^{3, 4} The fire was hardly the first of its kind to occur, but it was the largest and longest disaster thus far, most likely due to the prolonged dry season and increasing air temperatures in Indonesia.⁵

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PROJECT DATA

Scenario
Endings

Location
Rawa Kucing Landfill

Country
Indonesia

City
Tangerang

Site Area
49,000 square metres

FUTURARC PRIZE 2024: FIRST PLACE

Arkansyah Farras Setiawan works as an architectural designer and illustrator in Jakarta. He received his architecture master’s degree from the fast-track programme at Institut Teknologi Bandung, and is also a certified member of Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) as a Greenship Associate. His professional experience ranges from working on commercial rental housing to government office complexes at Nusantara Capital City with a sustainable touch. Arkansyah has an interest in architectural speculative research about spatial linking to contemporary culture such as folklore stories, games, start-ups, etc. He hopes to explore approaches that look into resilience, human comfort and cradle-to-cradle systems to create a relevant spatial solution for today’s times.

Read more stories from FuturArc 3Q 2024 Green Awards: Architecture for Life After!

¹ https://www.liputan6.com/news/read/5443511/kebakaran-di-tpa-rawa-kucing-dinyatakan-padam-setelah-2-minggu-dilalap-api
² https://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2023/10/30/16552141/bpbd-tangerang-catat-ada-27-hektar-luas-tpa-rawa-kucing-yang-terbakar
³ https://megapolitan.okezone.com/read/2023/10/20/338/2905307/tpa-rawa-kucing-tangerang-kebakaran-diduga-akibat-cuaca-panas
⁴ https://nafas.co.id/blog/Kebakaran-TPA-Rawa-Kucing-Menambah-Daftar-Kontributor-Polusi-Tinggi
⁵ https://www.rri.co.id/daerah/408659/tpa-rawa-kucing-tangerang-terbakar-hebat