A group of delegates from Universitas Dwijendra (Undwi), Indonesia visited UTAR Sungai Long Campus on 7 February 2020. The purpose of the visit was to exchange memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU aimed to foster collaboration between the two by organising a public lecture to enhance UTAR students’ understanding of Bali’s landscape and culture.

Representing UTAR at the MoU exchange ceremony were its Vice President for R&D and Commercialisation Prof Ts Dr Faidz bin Abd Rahman, while Undwi was represented by its Rector Dr Ir Gede Sedana, M.Sc., MMA. Also present at the ceremony were Chairman of Dwijendra Foundation Dr I Ketut Wirawan, SH., M.Hum., Undwi Faculty of Engineering Dean Frysa Wiriantari ST., MT.; UTAR Division of Community and International Networking Director Assoc Prof Dr Lai Soon Onn, Department of Architecture and Sustainable Design Head Ts Tan Kok Hong, Division of Programme Promotion International Student Recruitment and Business Development Deputy Director Irene Wong Hong Lei, and Department of Architecture and Sustainable Design Specialist Abd Muluk bin Abd Manan.

In his speech, Prof Faidz expressed his warm welcome to the delegates. According to him, UTAR had sent Architecture students to Undwi in Denpasar, Bali this early January. He believed that more students would revisit Undwi, and he cordially invited Undwi students to visit UTAR and Malaysia for a different cultural experience. Furthermore, he also suggested possible areas of collaboration with Undwi. “UTAR has a research group that focuses on culture preservation through modern communication technology. Some examples of projects are virtual reality application in traditional buildings such as traditional Malay houses, Chinese temples and longhouses in Sarawak,” he said. The suggestion he provided was to have collaboration with Undwi in preserving cultural heritage which he believes is important.

On the other hand, Dr Gede Sedana endorsed Prof Faidz’s statement to expand more corporation between the two institutions. He shared the development and focuses of Undwi, and invited UTAR students to the University to experience the traditional culture of Indonesia as it is located in the culturally-rich island—Bali. According to him, both institutions would also work on a joint project related to Balinese Traditional House.

A public lecture titled “Universal Values of Bali's Landscape and Culture” was then conducted after the meeting. The talk, organised by Centre of Sustainable Architecture (COSA), was presented by Dr Gede Sedana and Frysa Wiriantari. During the talk, Dr Gede Sedana shared the study on subak system, a traditional irrigation system that has socio-agrarian-religious nature and plays important part in rice cultivation; while Frysa Wiriantari talked about the traditional Balinese architecture such as lumbung (a Balinese traditional raised-floor rice granary) which brought out the beauty of Balinese culture.

The talk ended with a souvenir presentation from COSA Chairperson Dr Lim Poh Im to Dr Gede Sedana, followed by a group photography session.