Jakarta Megalopolis: Horizontal and Vertical Observations

Jakarta Megalopolis focuses on two projects in the title city by artist and architect Stani Michiels and artist Arjan van Helmond. Each grapples with Jakarta's housing culture, the experience of private as opposed to public space and the consequences of city migration, as well as the city's infrastructure, increasing density, and its coherence--or lack thereof--as a whole. As megalopolises in developing countries undergo explosive growth, their cultural, social, political and economic complexities are developing at unprecedented rates. That phenomenon is drawing more and more attention within the world of architecture and art, and Jakarta Megalopolis offers a case study of its complexities, a cutaway view of this chaotic new world.