The Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (FTUI), hosted a guest lecture featuring Prof. Graeme Brooker, Head of the Interior Design MA Programme at the Royal College of Art (RCA). The lecture took place on Monday (13/10) at the Multimedia Room, 2nd Floor, Department of Architecture. This session was part of SEARCH, a lecture series on architecture. The program also marks an ongoing collaboration between the UI Interior Architecture Study Program and Prof. Graeme Brooker (RCA).
The lecture carried the theme “Design Trends, Methodologies, and Sustainable Practices in Architecture & Interiors.” Several key topics were explored, including Heritage, superREUSE, Health, Matter, and Futures. Alongside the main lecture, a series of related activities were held, such as sharing sessions, portfolio sharing, a studio review for the Interior Architecture Design 5 course (Unit: Repair and Decoration, co-taught with Prof. Paramita Atmodiwirjo, S.T., M.Arch., Ph.D.), and a public lecture.
Prof. Graeme Brooker explained that heritage represents a complex web of social and cultural processes—each a practice rooted in the act of remembrance, connecting the past with the present and the future. Cultural heritage, he noted, can be both tangible and intangible, encompassing material qualities of sites, places, objects, buildings, and locations, as well as natural and cultural entities.
“The tangible is often prioritized in heritage studies, particularly within Western-centered approaches, where physical elements can be managed, and preservation tends to be governed by regulations, treaties, and charters. However, it is the intangible—the activities occurring in and around these sites—that truly give them status and meaning,” explained Prof. Brooker.
He further explored the idea of heritage as a collection of discovered elements within a site—to be analyzed, understood, and reinterpreted for new uses. Radical transformation, he said, occurs when these elements are adapted for purposes they were never originally intended for.
Expanding on this, Prof. Brooker discussed the concept of superREUSE, which identifies insights about cities, buildings, interiors, and constructed objects through the reuse of existing materials. The “super” aspect represents a forward-looking step for the 21st century—one that responds to the challenges of the climate emergency and social justice. The superREUSE manifesto integrates ideas within the designed and built environment to engage with these critical issues.
“Ethical, political, philosophical, and aesthetic questions all emerge—centered around what should be preserved, to what extent, and how new uses or reuses can coexist within these environments. Embedded within questions of what heritage is, or can become, lies an inherent sense of loss: not everything can be preserved, and thus we must confront what remains and what is discarded. Heritage is deeply intertwined with memory, values, politics, and sustainable reuse—all processes that engage with the loss inherent in what is left behind,” Prof. Brooker elaborated.
Prof. Graeme Brooker is an interior designer with extensive experience in practice, education, and research. He studied and practiced interior design in London and Manchester, teaching Interior Architecture at Cardiff between 1997 and 2004. He later served as Head of Interior Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, leading the BA, MA, and Design Research Centre programs from 2004 to 2011. In 2011, he became Principal Lecturer in Interior Architecture and Urbanism at Brighton University, before being appointed Head of the newly established Fashion and Interiors Department at Middlesex University, London, in 2013. He joined RCA as Head of Programme in 2015.
Brooker has taught at numerous institutions across America, Europe, and Asia, and has served as a Visiting Professor in Antwerp (2010–2013) and Milan (2014). Since 2010, he has been a keynote speaker at more than 30 international conferences and has conducted external reviews and validations at over 25 institutions, including in Hong Kong, Moscow, and Chicago. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the author of several influential books on the history, theory, and processes of interior design.
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Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia
