A day in an Iban longhouse is a colourful cacophony of everyday events – cooking, drying, weaving, caring, communing, singing, eating, washing – where there is little separation between living, working and communal activities. The same observation can be made about the city of Kuching, a techni-colour of formal andinformal spaces, landmarks, laneways, big & small, old and new, the public and the private.
We want to capture and migrate this richness into our building, where the ‘common’ and in-between spaces are given emphasis, amplified. Taken beyond their utilitarian purpose – stairs become terraces where the community watches a lion dance, roofs become parks where, landings become a place for art and corridors become streets, lorongs and laneways, the lifeblood if this three-dimensional village, facilitating connections, conversations and collaboration.
Pieces of the city – shops, laundrette, tuition centre, co-working, parks, the river, a warung, kopitiam, a spiritual centre are peppered throughout the building, blurring the boundaries between what is private and what is communal. We want Kampung Langit to be a microcosm of Kuching as a city, a city within a city. A village within a village.
