Digital Placemaking in Historical Urban Villages

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The development of digital technology is changing how we experience place. Placemaking, the process of turning space into meaningful place, works by weaving human stories into a location's form, activity, and meaning. Digital placemaking extends this through technology, allowing lost or changed historical forms to be represented again, as seen in projects like the Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive (2012)  and Historic Royal Palaces' The Lost Palace (2016).

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These strategies are still rarely applied to historical urban villages (kampung), where existing placemaking research tends to focus on physical conditions and communal activity, even as rapid population growth and space scarcity quietly erode the historical forms themselves. This project proposes a digital strategy for Kampung Kungfu Kapasan, a historically significant Chinese settlement in Surabaya.  Its form and activities have evolved over time, rather than freezing it at a single moment.

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Kampung Kungfu, in Kapasan Dalam, Surabaya, is a Chinese community settlement dating to the Dutch colonial period. Its residents' kung fu tradition protected the community and supported Indonesia's independence struggle. During the war, the village's dense, complex alley network made it an effective hiding shelter for Indonesian fighters. Today, however, kung fu training has become concentrated mostly among the older generation. The village also reflects a deep integration of Chinese and local Javanese culture, visible especially in the building form of the Boen Bio temple.

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This project offers a virtual tour through several places and eras in Kampung Kungfu Kapasan, letting visitors move through both space and time between 360° panoramic scenes, accessible online and, on-site, via QR code. It draws inspiration from 360 Riot Walk (2023), Henry Tsang's interactive walking tour of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver. Where that project traces a single historical event along a route, this one portrays the changing stories, building forms, and everyday activity across multiple spots within one kampung over time. The spots featured include the Boen Bio temple (1920s and 2020s), the Community Field (1940s and 2020s), Tong Hiang Hwee Hall (1940s and 2020s), the kampong settlements (1880s and 1930s), and Pasar Kapasan (1940s).