Istana Kuta Galeria, The Ring of Events

The client’s original design brief was quite simple: to generate a master plan and design concept for economical, low-budget shop houses occupying one side of the site with an anchor shopping mall on the other. Despite the simple brief, the site context, however, was not that simple. Although strategically located a few blocks away from the famous Kuta Beach in Bali, the site is also removed away from any kind of urban activities. The relatively flat land measuring 68.000 sq m was found to be locking historical or topogtaphical character. Narrow frontage on both side entrances also meant minimal street front activities vital to attract visitors into the proposed commercial area.

A new strategy was developed, emphasizing on creating a self-generating event that would attract enough visitors and shoppers into the site. Inspired by the numerous Arak-arakan events in Balinese traditions that are full of street processions and art festivals; the architect initially attempted to meld the cultural traditions with new ideas to formalize a modern Balinese character.

The six major characteristics of Bali (Art Festival Promenade, Shopping Arcades, Food Festival, Entertainment, Extreme Sports and Bali Fashion) were taken and formulated to provide the ‘necklace of events’, a combination of art, shops, dining, entertainment, sports, and fashion into one showground. Each characteristic was rhen converted into spesific blocks; each block triggers particular events and also acts as a catalyst to the others. Centering on this ‘Ring of Events’, all block were interconnected and linked each other using various scales pedestrian/vehicular streets.

Based on their characteristics and locations, the blocks are divided into five events places and nine blocks of buildings.

The five main events are named as follows: Ring of Events for running major events, Festival Promenade for main art festivals/processions, Broadway Crescent fashion streets, Ethnic Circle art shopping district, and Riverside Garden for outdoor dining activities.

The nine blocks of building are: Valet, Entrance, Ethnic Circle, Riverside, Promenade, Ring of Events, Techno Square, Broadway, and the Shopping Mall/Lagoon Waterfall. Each is designed uniquely and named after their positions and/or their function.

While trying to incorporate Balinese architecture into the design of this project, the architect established that Balinese traditional architecture concepts, being beautiful as they are in the detached building types, could not be easily incorporated into the linear row of shop houses.

While the decision to use extensive local/traditional materials and trying to incorporate the intricate spaces at Balinese and landscape into the design was made veryb early in the design process, the resulting design does not really simulate the ethnic contemporary look that was conceived initially. The usual approach that works well with resorts/cafes was not considered suitable for buildings of a commercial nature.

A new approach to the design was then adopted that does not search for architectural elements that characterize Balinese architecture, that suggests the richness of Bali much more rather than its serenity.

Handicraft details, woodcarving details, statues, butterfly shapes, umbul-umbul banners, Balinese lotus, surf and sand, were redrawn, simplified and re-designed in large scale as identity icons for the buildings. The woodcarving and umbul-umbul banner tower in Valet and Riverside and the giant surfboard of Techno Square are examples of different shapes of how Balinese daily objects often neglected, give each building a feel of Balinese daily life and character.

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