Maulidia Amalia

Intervening the Ordinary

Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design - MA

Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)

maulidiaintan.a@gmail.com

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Fringe urban system as performance space

Illustration of children using space - sitting below the table

Project Brief

This project challenges how everyday urban control quietly shape how people move and behave in public space. Located at the George IV Bridge, this project took place on the sidewalk using existing urban features as the main object. By changing their function, the project altered the perception of the space, shifting it from one traditionally associated with control and restriction to opportunities for social interaction and alternative spatial use.

Taking place during fringe festival, the project goal is to create temporary interventions designed to interrupt routine on the bridge. The aim of this project is to encourage people to question how public space is shaped and to explore new ways of engaging with their environment.

Background context

Baby’s Day Out (1994), written by John Hughes, is a movie that offers an insightful lens on how children perceive and engage with the interior and urban spaces. The story follows a kidnapped baby who escaped from his kidnapper and travel through the city alone. He does not “use” spaces as adults intend; instead, he climbs, crawls, hides, and explores based on curiosity. Stairs become mountains, revolving doors become spinning puzzle, and Gorilla becomes a bed. This shows that babies or children does not follow architectural and social cues or rules when it comes to engaging with the interior.

This film gives a meaningful example of spatial mis-use and resistance to urban control. In my project, I use Baby’s Day Out not as a literal reference but as a methodological provocation. The method generated are lowering scale, altering perspective, and shifting spatial logic.

baby interaction and point of view in the movie Baby's Day Out

Have social norm affect the way we use a space?

Is the public space designed for us to behave in a certain way?

Do we use interior differently at home?

Is the presence of another eye stops us from exploring?

Using speculative urban furniture, I explored how small interventions could disrupt routine behaviors and open up new possibilities. By adapting existing features like bike racks and bollards, I encouraged people to occupy the space differently. Which shifted the meaning of those urban features, from agent of control into social space.

This shift in meaning reveals that an interior is also formed by people’s assumption of space. Which means that an interior can be created wherever people assign meaning to a space, making it a social construct as much as its a physical one. Which lead to a new understanding that an interior is both physical and social construct shaped by the world around us.

Other Works

Growing Bodies - Adapting Interior

As an avid reader, I know the importance of comfort and flexibility during long reading sessions. Drawing on this insight, I designed a new reading space in the teenage section of Edinburgh Central Library. The concept encourages readers to shift positions and explore different seating arrangements, mirroring natural reading habits. Respecting the library’s historic significance, the intervention was created to enhance the space without altering its original architectural character.

Workspace Lighting Plan - Lighting Design

In this project, I created a lighting plan for construction office in Indonesia. This project proposes a lighting design that enhances productivity, well-being, and visual comfort in the workplace. The aim is to strengthens the work environment by supporting high-focus, detail-oriented tasks while visually reinforcing the company’s image.