BARTER TRADE CENTRE, BATAM

Abstract

This project deals with the potential of an existing oil fabrication yard located in Batu Ampar, north of Batam Island, Indonesia. With McDermott’s, lease for the land, which the oil fabrication yard is located, expiring, the land becomes a physical and theoretical site for a barter trade centre, where issues of hierarchy and voyeurism are critically questioned. Barter Trading has a long history in Asia, the Bugis were best known not only as traders but as pirates. Even during the turbulent atmosphere of the Japanese occupation, barter trading persisted and flourished between Singapore and the Riau Islands. Barter Trading is still practiced today, however, different from the days where the main trade was rubber and spices. Now barter trade thrives on the unequal economic situation of Singapore and Indonesia. Singapore traders supply second-hand electronic appliances and furniture while Indonesian traders provide raw materials like bakau wood and locally hand-made furniture. The functionalist response is not only to improve the physical and economic conditions of the neighbouring kampong – Batu Merah and their thriving activities, trading and selling second hand goods from Singapore and the rest of the Riau Islands. But becomes architecture that emerges from the relationship between the mechanisms of power structures. The Barter Trade Centre preserves the cultural practice of barter trading which is also economically legitimate to mainstream society.