FAP 2023 Juror Project Highlight: Dr Miya Irawati on Migration and Spatiality

According to United Nations data in 2021, almost 60 per cent of the world’s population resides in Asia. Along with its growing populace, Asia is experiencing rapid urbanisation, with an influx of people migrating from rural areas to cities.

Researching along such themes, FuturArc Prize 2023 juror Dr Miya Irawati was part of the team at Urban-Rural Systems, Future Cities Laboratory (FCL), ETH Zurich, in Singapore. Their projects implement sustainable architectural values for housing provision in peri-urban, migrational areas of Monsoon Asia, including Expandable House that responded to the needs of the populace in Batam—the world’s fastest-growing city in 2015 according to Demographia World Urban Areas. Expandable House was part of the 20 shortlisted projects for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Dr Miya’s work provides insights about: how can architecture respond to population shifts and the fluctuating patterns of resource consumption of residents? How would cities accommodate this inflow by way of housing and other amenities?

1) Seeding

Seeding common technologies (rainwater and septic tanks, filters, sensors), material strategies (renewable, available, emergent) and spatial planning parameters (street widths, density standards) to catalyse the growth of variable built fabrics and diverse tropical towns.

2) Sandwich Section

A hoistable roof and fixed foundations (the ‘bread’) that can support up to three additional floors (the ‘filling’), allowing for flexible financing, where the developer or state housing agency provides the roof and foundations, and the residents construct extra space as their circumstances require and budget allows. It also helps to accommodate crucial income generating functions (shop, café, mechanical repairs, cottage industry) along with the dwelling.

3) Productive Landscapes

Integrate food and building material production capacity locally, such as bamboo plantations and kitchen gardens, to help further diversify the resource base of the residents.

4) Public and Private Spaces

Integrate a spectrum of public and private spaces (squares, streets, laneways, courtyards) and thresholds between them (gateways, balconies, porches, vestibules) that support a good living experience in dense and mixed-use urban environments.

5) Decentralised Systems

Plan with decentralised systems—rainwater harvesting and solar electricity generating technologies, sewage and septic tank systems, as well as passive cooling principles—to avoid or supplement expensive and often unreliable centralised or ‘big pipe’ infrastructure.

6) Density and Scalability

Encourage vertical densification to benefit from the co-location of dwellings and employment, reduce the settlement footprint on arable land, and the demand for expensive infrastructures (roads, electrical and potable water networks).