Amanda Achmadi’s research interests focus on architectural historiography, socio-spatial practices, and identity politics in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia. Her research papers have been published in Fabrications, Architecture Beyond Europe Journal, Architectural Theory Review, JSAH and Space and Polity.

Among her recent publications are an edited anthology Architectural Encounters in Asia Pacific Built Traces of Intercolonial Trade, Industry and Labour, 1800s-1950s (Bloomsbury, 2024), and chapters in Reclaiming Colonial Architecture (RIBA Publishing, 2024), Routledge Handbook of Asia Cities (Routledge, 2023), Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for Contemporary Architectural Practice and Theory (Bloomsbury, 2023), and Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2019).

She is one of the founding members of the Society of Architectural and Urban Historians of Asia (SAUH-Asia).

In his lecture, Mahatmanto will discuss how Mangunwijaya’s architectural work can be viewed from a contemporary perspective, namely with a focus on tectonics, the assembly of components into a structure. The presentation is based on materials originally compiled in collaboration with Eko Prawoto (1958-2023). Eko Prawoto was the first to attempt to understand Mangunwijaya’s architectural work from this perspective.

Mahatmanto is a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Universitas Kristan Duta Wacana (Duta Wacana Christian University), Yogyakarta. He studied architecture at the Bandung Institute of Technology. He is particularly interested in the study of the traces of colonial architectural thought and work in contemporary architectural practice.

In his presentation, Ranon Chotkamolpongsa will talk about the working methods that Yangnar Studio have drawn from their passion and experience. Yangnar Studio bring back vernacular architecture from their travels, mostly in Northern Thailand and Southeast Asia. They improvise and incorporate these into their designs, both preserving traditional wisdom and meeting the needs of clients in modern times. They aim to use local and repurposed materials for sustainability. They also design to maximise the potential of each site in Thailand’s tropical climate.

Yangnar Studio is concerned with the process of bringing out the potential of the site, the materials and the people behind them. They emphasise the importance of craftsmanship by incorporating it into details and processes, showcasing local skills, preserving wisdom and passing it on to the next generation.

Ranon Chotkamolpongsa studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. Since 2022, he is working as a project architect at Yangnar Studio, Chiang Mai. Yangnar Studio has received a number of awards, including the Baan Lae Suan Award and the ASA Architectural Design Award by the Association of Siamese Architects Under Royal Patronage.

A tulou is a typical traditional building typology in the mountain valleys of China’s Fujian Province. Built between the 15th and 20th centuries, the circular or square multi-level fortresses served both as a defensive structure and collective housing. UNESCO listed 46 Fujian Tulou buildings as World Heritage Sites in 2008, but thousands more in the region are left unattended, vacant, or abandoned. The project defines a conservation strategy for 7 diverse tulous through adaptive reuse and introduces a prototypical method for revitalising the non-protected tulous in the region.

Xu Tiantian received her Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Since opening her practice in Beijing in 2004, Xu has received numerous awards such as the WA China Architecture Award in 2006 and 2008, the Architectural League New York’s Young Architects Award in 2008, the Design Vanguard Award in 2009 by Architecture Record, the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architect in 2019 and the International Prize of Sustainable Architecture in 2021. In 2020, she was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2022 she became the recipient of Swiss Architectural Award.

Xu Tiantian’s groundbreaking “Architectural Acupuncture” is a holistic approach to the social and economic revitalization of rural China and has been selected by UN Habitat as the case study of Inspiring Practice on Urban-Rural Linkages.

A wave of kampung evictions in Jakarta between 2015 and 2016 intensified the movement for housing rights. As a part of urban activism, architects are forced to be a negotiating apparatus between a multitude of colliding interests. Here, designs are conceived through complex participatory models with all parties involved, particularly those in the kampungs. Through this presentation, Kamil Muhammad will share insights on how architecture find its built form in such a challenging context and the ways in which participatory process, critically, shape the social forms.

Kamil Muhammad is the director of Jakarta based architecture practice pppooolll. Kamil led the architectural effort for the cooperative housing prototype Kampung Susun Kunir (2022) in conjunction with the Jakarta Government Housing Agency. His work has been internationally awarded such as the LafargeHolcim Award Asia Pacific (2017), Museum for Climate Change, Glasgow (2020) and FuturArc Prize 2024. Kamil is a cofounder of Architecture Sans Frontieres-Indonesia, a cofounder of architecture-anthropology design research unit Rimpang, and an architect-researcher with Labtek Apung as part of the South Designs initiative. Prior to returning to Jakarta, Kamil has previously spent significant time in the Middle East, Kuala Lumpur, and Melbourne.

Partner und Partner is currently planning two timber high-rises in Wolfsburg, which are to be developed according to the “Cradle to Cradle” principles. They will be the first high-rise buildings made of wood and straw in Germany. The timber high-rises each have twelve floors and ninety residential units.

Parallel research is being carried out on a 1:1 scale: the Natural Building Lab at Technical University Berlin has built a section of the houses as a mock-up of a building corner. The research project demonstrates under laboratory conditions what is already possible in circular construction – and what is not yet. The mock-up is embedded in a research project funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). Using the example of the Woodscraper, a transferable strategy for circular timber construction is to be developed.

Woodscraper was supported by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Environmental Foundation) and was awarded the German Federal Prize Ecodesign in the Concept category in November 2019. The project also received the German Sustainability Award 2021 “Design/Vision”.

Jörg Finkbeiner is a graduate architect, trained as a carpenter and studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. Since 2006 he has been one of the managing directors of Partner und Partner Architekten. The office specializes in timber construction and sustainable building according to Cradle to Cradle (C2C). It also deals with future issues in the building sector as part of various research projects.

Jörg Finkbeiner has been a Cradle to Cradle Consultant since 2011. He was also a lecturer and research assistant at TU Berlin and taught “sustainable design” at Detmold University of Applied Sciences until 2017 as part of a deputy professorship. He is active as a speaker at events on timber construction, and circular construction throughout Germany. Partner und Partner is one of the three finalists for the German Sustainability Award “Company 2025”.

Can local, cultural wisdom contribute to better architecture in our globalized world? Can it contribute to the mitigation of climate change, to the design of open spaces, or to urban planning? What is the role of building materials, construction techniques and craftsmanship? In his lecture, Johannes Widodo will provide an overview of the current state of research, practice and initiatives, drawing on several examples.

Dr. Johannes Widodo is Professor at the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture, MA Architectural Conservation Program. He is an Associate Member of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), Founding Executive of mAAN (modern Asian Architecture Network), Founding Director of iNTA (International Network of Tropical Architecture), Executive Committee member of the Asian Academy for Heritage Management, jury member for UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, Voting Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee, Founding Director of ICOMOS National Committee of Singapore and Indonesia, Founding Director of Docomomo Macau and founder of Docomomo Singapore, co-founder and Executive Board Member of SEACHA (South-East Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance) platform (since 2019), and member of the Alumni KU Leuven Regional Council South East Asia (since 2020). He served as an Advisory Board Member of the Preservation of Sites and Monuments of the National Heritage Board of Singapore (2013–2019).