The NUS Cities Lecture Series investigates ideas, policies and projects developed by urban experts, which aspire to create sustainable, resilient, and liveable cities. Find out more about our future lectures at our website: https://cde.nus.edu.sg/nuscities/public-lecture-series/

On 20 May 2024, Ridwan Kamil, Indonesia Architect and Politician, curator of Nusantara, gave an NUS Cities Lecture on building Indonesia's new capital.

Indonesia is currently building an unprecedented government-led mega project for its new capital city, Nusantara. Located in the south of Kalimantan, Nusantara is visioned to be a world-class city that balances its futuristic ambition with a promise to be a smart, green, zero-carbon model.

Stretching around 420,000 ha, Nusantara was created during President Jokowi’s administration. The idea of having a proper capital city can be traced back to the colonial era, when the Dutch colonial government planned to move its capital from Batavia to Bandung until it stopped in 1942 due to the Japanese invasion of Indonesia.

Nusantara has now become the laboratory of architecture, inviting new thinking and a new direction for a zero-carbon city and a livable urban life. Various national and international architects have designed many interesting buildings that are worth sharing.

Many questions arise from the public perspective, questioning the urgency for Indonesia to build a capital city in a battered post-COVID economy. The building of Nusantara also became a main topic in a heated Presidential election debate recently. The talk will discuss the challenges of fulfilling this ambitious vision from a planning and design perspective.

Will Nusantara deliver its utopian promise?

Ridwan Kamil is an award-winning architect who has been appointed as the Curator of Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara. A graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree of Master of Urban Design, He was also the former Mayor of Bandung and Governor of West Java, Indonesia. He is also the founder of URBANE, a renowned office in Bandung. He has won more than 20 design competitions and awards and a total of 900 government awards during his time as Mayor and Governor.

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