As I look back and reflect on my first three years’ research in XJTLU (mid-April 2022 – mid-April 2025) as my first full-time academic post, I am truly grateful to have been working with incredible mentors, colleagues (including PhD students) and friends. This map encapsulates my areas of interest, showing the two main areas are *drumroll* bamboo architecture and the circular economy. The next three years will be slightly different as I continue on this learning path, but they will be equally exciting! Cheers for those who have been supporting along the way.

Link to my PURE (the university profile) is as follows, with the most updated research endeavor: https://scholar.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/persons/MiaTedjosaputro

As a Suzhou newcomer, Anastasia (aka Vicky) dragged me into this ladies’ Wechat group chat, a very informal one called “Ladies Dinner Around the World” about a year ago. The premise is ladies take turns to host Friday night dinners revolving around the theme of our countries. After a few rounds of enjoying and joining other parties, Vicky and I brainstormed the idea of having an Indonesian night. A few idea iterations away, November came, and we were to host on November 3rd. Vicky found a good spot in MSocial, a newly opened hotel which serves (what a surprise) a few Indonesian dishes. Chef Rich (originally from Malaysia) was super accommodating, and he proposed a custom set of Indonesian-style dishes, buffet style. The cooking team worked very hard and professionally, and we expanded the number from the usual 20 to 60 registered ladies at the end! Beyond impressed.

With the help of two other Indonesian ladies, Wanti and Anne; we set up the place. Welcoming snacks (krupuk) were served as ladies made their way in. Making use of this gathering opportunity, I shared our food-related culture very briefly (as we were all starving!), which is very diverse, full of texture, full of colour and full of tastiness! For instance, Balinese food is very different with the Eastern Java food I grew up with. The short presentation is concluded with an introduction of the walk-the-tampah challenge, commonly played on August 17th, the Independence Day celebration with other fun games. There were five awards of the night: tampah lady, passionate walk, confident walk, sexy walk and lady walk. Super fun!

We hope, with this simple act of sharing our culture through food, other families get to know more about Indonesia and consider visiting Indonesia in the near future. Cheers all for coming, and it was a pleasure.

Mia xxxxx

A fully funded PhD opportunity in Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University. Successful candidate is expected to conduct the study in Suzhou, China. PhD degree will be awarded by the University of Liverpool (UK).

Please read the blurb carefully by scanning the QR code or head to: https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/PGRS2212008_Mia-Tedjosaputro_DES.pdf

Link for the English version video: GLOBALink | Indonesian architect witnesses China’s fast development over past decade-Xinhua (news.cn)

Link to the simple AR experience: https://miatedjosaputro.com/2022/06/07/ar-bamboo-structures/

1: Three Mountains, Bali (2006)

2: Aldo’s kitchen, Bali (2007)

3: Kindergarten classroom, Bali (2008)

4: Heart of School, Bali (2009)

5: Sharma Springs, Bali (2012)

6: Princess Tower, Bali (2019)

7:Dragon Kitchen, Bali (2022)

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Check this live document to check availability: https://docs.qq.com/sheet/DVWVvS1p5SGFOTW5v

Our second list:

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A bit of background, the module was co-taught by Fin and myself. The international program in Ningbo University has been online from February 2020 due to the fact that most of the students are still abroad. Last semester (September-December 2021) we adapted Miro for the first time. The learners confirmed that none of them had prior experience with Miro in question #17.

At the beginning of the semester Miro was also used to get to know each other through the ‘Introduce Yourself’ area. Tutors and learners had their designated boxes to showcase their passions etc. It was hoped to create a conducive online learning community, especially between tutors and learners as we did not know each other before this module. The design brief was to design a library.

It is commonly understood that in architectural pedagogy, face-to-face studio setting is irreplaceable. The online learning provision cannot mimic the usual studio setting; however it offers a unique experience in comparison to F2F. These unique experiences are the point of departure of this observation, giving rise to the potential to incorporate the observed benefit to the existing F2F learning for future flexible learning purposes. Overall, the learners rated the synchronous online learning, using a combination of Miro and a video conversation platform DingTalk as a positive experience, see Figure 3. In addition, the online learning community is considerably well rated too, see Figure 4.

Figure 5 shows the general acceptance of Miro, however this also shows that it cannot replace the F2F experience. From Figure 6 the constant (twice a week) display was rated positively by the learners (85.7%), I found this interesting as this capability is less likely to occur in a regular F2F. Usually learners get to see their friends’ work in the studio setting but not to this extent of all of their progress. 42% of the students also pointed out that it facilitates the peer learning exercise.

On the last survey (question #24), learners were asked to leave feedback on Miro use. They criticised that Miro could be slow to load at times. It is usually due to the number of images, learners’ internet connection and using the free version of Miro. This situation was mitigated by splitting the whole semester journey to three Miro boards. The first board (Figure 2) displayed Week 1-6 progress, the second board displayed Week 7-13 progress and the third board was exclusively for the final assessment (final crit, see Figure 7). There was a conflicting view on the use of Miro with regards to panel layout. One student mentioned that it saved time instead of making panels using design software such as Photoshop/AI, however another learner preferred to use the design software. Perhaps this was not illustrated clearly- in the future, it is best to highlight to learners that they can still do layout in design software and upload them as images into Miro.

During the final crit (Figure 7), the facilitators decided to combine a live presentation and a pre-recorded one. This would minimise the technical and internet problems. The live session served as a summary of the final work, and pre-recorded presentations were used to expand the design in more detail.

To sum up, although the use of Miro was generally well accepted, there is room for improvement. Referring to the aim of this blog to identify the potential use of Miro to complement future F2F learning, some identified advantages are: 1) the constant display of progress was beneficial for tutors and learners, 2) minimising the need for panel lay outing, and 3) Miro can also be used to facilitate assessment in F2F and flexible learning environments. It is also observed by the author that making sketches during tutorials on Miro is as convenient as on paper-and-pen, co-sketching during tutorials with learners can also be achieved and documented.

Link to the final student work and the AR experience:

https://miatedjosaputro.com/2021/12/27/ad3-end-of-semester-online-portfolio/

https://nbuad3librarydesig.wixsite.com/arexperience

1. Lock down Batik, our own design. The story of being in lockdown for a long time causes the inner circle relationships to be tighter than ever, and it is bordered with lines that represent social distancing with extended family and friends. It also makes some tangential connections with the edges and forms a strong structure that is extended and repeated throughout the pattern.
2. Disruption Batik, our own design. This pattern is a tribute to the pandemic era that defines our generation’s story. The forms depict:
   1. Sun shaped objects: Covid 19 virus has a unique shape that defines the core of the pattern.
   2. Three layered circles: Represent the never-ending evolution of covid variants.
   3. The wavy tendrils: Define the disruption of the spreading of the virus. As a whole, the pattern defines its own story of our generation in the pandemic era, and shows both the dark, negative aspects and the light, positive ones.