Jakarta Heritage Academy: The Liveable Historic City

The Jakarta Heritage Academy consists of a series of six masterclasses for young heritage professionals which will be launched at a symposium on August 19 and 20 in Jakarta.

Heritage and urban planning
The central theme of the Academy is ‘the liveable historic city’, with a strong focus on the restoration, preservation and management of historical buildings, in the wider context of urban planning and development (e.g. archival research, public-private partnerships, social design and community participation, water management and infrastructure). The programme is aimed at young Indonesian architects, policy makers, archivists and other heritage professionals. Twenty participants will be selected based on motivation, CV and references.

The ultimate goal of the Academy is to equip young heritage professionals with knowledge and skills to preserve and manage heritage buildings in cities, and to show them that these buildings are not separate entities but that they are embedded in urban dynamics which requires a sustainable, integrated approach.

Symposium and visits
In August the Jakarta Heritage Academy will be officially launched in Indonesia during a symposium with keynote speeches. Site visits and mapping sessions with the target group to take stock of their challenges and questions are scheduled as well during the symposium, in order to design a most efficient programme for the masterclasses. During the symposium special attention will go to drafting a statement of significance for a historic building, the crucial first step for preservation.

Masterclasses
Every Jakarta Heritage Academy masterclass will cover a specific topic and will be taught by Dutch and Indonesian experts. The masterclasses will be held during six weekends in 2017, with the first session planned in February and the last one in December. All partners aim for reruns of the Jakarta Heritage Academy in 2018 and 2019. At the end of the academic year the most talented participant of the masterclasses will be awarded with the Han Awal-Heuken scholarship to attend a post doctoral programme at a relevant educational institute in the Netherlands.

Indonesian-Dutch cooperation
The Jakarta Heritage Academy is supported by the Dutch partners Stichting Nationaal Cadeau Indonesia (SNCI, or ‘Foundation National Gift Indonesia’), Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, National Archives of the Netherlands, Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta, Erasmus Huis and DutchCulture, and by the Indonesian partners Pusat Dokumentasi Arsitektur (PDA), Budi Lim Architects, Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI), Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Ministry of Education and Culture. The partners are hoping to further strengthen this support by involving educational institutes from both the Netherlands and Indonesia.