The Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering, UNDIP (DURP UNDIP) held an online event commencing the Urban Regeneration Studio (URS) 2023 on Saturday, August 5, 2023. Urban Regeneration Studio 2023 is a collaborative effort between UNDIP, UGM, Kota Lab France, Semarang City Government, IAP (Association of Planning Experts), and IALI (Indonesian Landscape Architecture Association). The URS 2023 was held from August 10 until August 19, 2023, with the theme ‘Developing the built environment to leverage the innovative economic activities.
Offcially commenced by the Head of DURP UNDIP, Prof. Wiwandari Handayani, the event was attended by lecturers from DURP UGM (Prof. Bakti Setiawan and Dr. Tri Mulyani Sunarharum), IAP (Agnesia Putri Kurnianingtyas, ST, MT, and representatives), IALI, the Head of Semarang City Bappeda (Budi Prakosa ST, MT) and the team of KotaLab France (Julien Birgi, MBA, MuP, Ph.D. and Marie Julie Lavaud, MArch).
Twenty-one participants attended this hybrid event; they were master’s students from UNDIP and UGM, along with young professionals from IAP and IALI. The case study for URS 2023 was Tambakrejo Village in Semarang, which faces environmental issues, floods, and poverty. All participants actively and enthusiastically engaged the programs, ranging from lectures, discussions, field visits, and final studio presentations. The studio’s outcomes concluded several things. They were: (1) identifying the area’s issues, (2) determining the targets and concepts through field analyses, (3) developing master plans and timelines, and (4) budgeting. Several non-governmental organizations such as IKUPI, WALHI, BINTARI, and Kadin Semarang also contributed input during the preparation process of the studio’s outputs.
One of the participants of URS 2023, Ayu Safitri, a master’s student from UGM, shared her opinion. “I learned a lot about cross-institutional collaboration, enhancing my perspective on urban planning regeneration. I also learned how to collaborate effectively with fellow students, lecturers, the Semarang City Government, and professionals from various disciplines to create urban planning solutions. Along with the guidance of KotaLab France, this studio has become more exciting and challenging in every aspect.” Another participant from IAP, Clarrio, stated, “The training modules and teaching processes of URS support the mindset of urban design leaders by introducing the right competencies for analytical design and problem-solving. URS is highly interesting and beneficial for academics, government employees, lecturers, and urban design professionals. See you at the next URS event!”.