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A Ritual Art of Offering as Catalyst forSustainable Urban Intervention
Syed Sobri Zubir 
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and Mohd Hafiz Amirrol
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1
 Department of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti TeknologiMARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, MALAYSIA
Abstract
The ritual art of offerings as part of religious procession has been inherent inmany traditional cultures since time immemorial. This form of ceremony isapparently still practiced in contemporary times and one of the places that areheavily laden with this form of offerings to the Gods is on the paradise island of Bali, Indonesia. Their livelihood is ingrained with this ritual from the day of their  birth until the day of their cremation. Since this ritual is part of the culture, whichin turn shaped the built environment, therefore, it becomes the primary concernof this paper to explore their significant attributes so that it can be used togenerate alternative solutions in modeling sustainable and livable communitiesfor the future. The site for the proposed urban design intervention exercise will be on an empty land of more than 400 acres to be developed in supporting acommunity of 20,000 people on the island of Serangan, supposedly to be theminiature of Bali and the home to the second holiest temple that is the PuraSakenan. The island is connected to the island of Bali by a bridge that caters for the regular religious processions to the temple. These theoretical exercises aregenerated from the urban design studio of the architectural program at theUniversiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia and will culminate in design guidelinesand proposals that assimilate the ritual art of offerings that is endemic andresponsive to the context of the place. The paper will present four models of the proposed new urban structure on the island of Serangan, Bali portrayingvariation of approaches based on their initial research and analysis of the context.The intention of the project is to expose students to spatial planning and designissues, with special emphasis on social and cultural phenomena in producingalternative models relevant to contemporary and future urban forms. Since Baliis experiencing dramatic cultural, economic and social change via global marketdriven economies have transformed the traditionally strong communities to
 
accommodate new typologies of urban form. By zeroing into the components of  place making as complete entities in themselves, students would be able toappreciate the hidden dimensions of the city. What is introduced in our urbandesign studio is a way of thinking, a way of approaching problems by identifyingthem rather than inventing them. Only then does one look for specific data thatare needed in order to solve the problems. Also important is the logic of theargument, how the various sections of the study work together and are linked tothe main problem. Each intervention proposals will be discussed individually,deliberating each design intention to achieve the prescribed goals from theresearch findings to reflect aspects of sustainability. The urban design process of the research laboratory is based on a synoptic method so as rational strategies or synectic approaches could be realized and transformed into a reflexive programfor the urban intervention. As this research and design project makes use of amultiple sources of evidence, a mixed-methodology model is adopted. It is acombination of historical-interpretative strategy as well as qualitative andquantitative strategies. Hopefully, this design research exercise can validate the possibilities of projecting a new typology of urban form that is derived from thesource of traditional norms i.e., from the ritual art of offerings.
 Keywords:
culture; tradition; reflexive; hybridization; responsive; sustainable;typologies; morphology; urban form
 
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Introduction
Despite the current brouhaha over problems of carbon emission, carbonfootprints, etc, the issue of sustainability is not just limited to matters of earth,water, air and the environment. This paper asserts that the core component inensuring sustainability of any field is the people. Integral to this is their day today attitudes that also for the culture of the society. Hence, the cultural habits visthe cultural longevity will also impact the sustenance of the lived environment.However, influx of foreign contents is always a challenge to any traditionalsociety. As Soeters (2005:69) laments, “If we look at history, we could say thatthe norm was for the poor man to help himself by forming his own dwelling, hisvillage and his town, all the while praying to the gods, with an appropriatehumility, that what he made would please them as well as himself. But then, inthe early twentieth century, architects took upon themselves not the role of  people trying to make their own place in the best way they could, but of beinggods themselves. Whereas the gods of the past had sanctioned the creations of men, these new gods determined that nothing was properly ordered and set outrearranging it all for the better. By means of the
tabula rasa
, a completely neworder could be created”. Bali is not untouched by this phenomenon of starting-from-a-clean-slate approach to development. It is experiencing dramatic cultural,economic and social change via global market driven economies that havetransformed the traditionally strong communities to accommodating newtypologies of urban form. Made Wijaya, a permanent resident of Balidisapproves of the new breed of housing schemes which are devastating theisland not unlike the tsunami of 2004, branding them as Bali’s New Asian ZenMcVillas for their identical architecture. “What concerns me most about Bali atthe moment
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……[is] the genuine threat of real-estate brokers smothering theland with ugly villas” (Wijaya:2008, 2007, 2006). Despite the influx, animportant aspect of the Balinese culture remains intact. This paper looks at theritual art of offering practiced among the Balinese as a form of culturalsustainability that moulds and gives life to their built environment. Since thisritual is part of the culture, which in turn shaped the built environment, therefore,it becomes the primary concern of this paper to explore its significant attributes.This can be used to generate alternative solutions in modeling sustainable andlivable communities for the future.
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Ritual Art of Offering
The ritual art of offerings as part of religious procession has been inherent inmany traditional cultures since time immemorial. This form of ceremony is still practiced in contemporary times and one of the places that are heavily laden withthis form of offerings to the Gods is the paradise island of Bali, Indonesia. The people’s livelihood is ingrained with this ritual from the day of their birth untilthe day of their cremation. An important aspect to observe in this culture is thatevery object has a life. This object’s life is a necessity for it to address andinteract with the gods in accordance with the object’s unique purpose. For the
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