Dr Rara Warakanyaka

Senior Lecturer

Department of Art and Music

Room no. JM309

Biography

Rara Warakanyaka is an educator, researcher and interior architect whose work explores the relationship between interior practice and the urban environment. Her research particularly examines how informal and everyday spatial practices can act as catalysts for creating more liveable, socially equitable, and inclusive cities.

As a Senior Lecturer, Rara teaches across both interior design decoration and interior design architecture courses, bringing socially engaged and sustainable perspectives to the practical and architectural dimensions of interior design education. Her teaching integrates critical thinking with design practice, encouraging students to consider the broader social, cultural and environmental impact of interior design.

Rara holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, where her doctoral thesis, Inside/Out: Street Vending and Participatory Interior Urbanism in Jakarta, investigated informal urban practices and participatory approaches to interior urbanism.

She has worked in Higher Education since 2012 and has taught internationally across Indonesia, China and the United Kingdom.

Further information

2023 – present: Senior Lecturer in BA (Hons) Interior Design Architecture and BA (Hons) Interior Design Decoration, Southampton Solent University

2018 – 2019: Senior Teaching Fellow (Flying Academic) in Fashion Interior Design at Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation (SCF), University of Edinburgh

2016 – 2018: Lecturer in B.Arch. Interior Architecture, Universitas Indonesia

2012 – 2014: Teaching Assistant in B.Arch. Interior Architecture, Universitas Indonesia

Warakanyaka, A. (2026). Inside/out: Street vending and participatory interior urbanism in Jakarta. PhD thesis. School of Architecture, Royal College of Art.

Warakanyaka, A. (2024). Mind-walking through Instagram: extracting the essences of Jakarta’s street vending. Articulo – Revue de Sciences Humaines, 24. https://doi.org/10.4000/articulo.5754

Warakanyaka, A. (2023). Street Vending in the Liveable City: An Autoethnographic Exploration (Vol. 2). New York City College of Technology & AMPS.

Warakanyaka, A. (2021). Tracing London’s urban living room. ARSNET, 1(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.7454/arsnet.v1i2.24

Warakanyaka, A., & Yatmo, Y. A. (2018). Tracing the Progression of Inhabitation through Interior Surface in Semarang Old Town. Interiority, 1 (1), 64-78. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v1i1.9

Warakanyaka, A., & Yatmo, Y. A. (2018). Understanding the Importance of Time in Interior Architectural Design Method. SHS Web of Conferences, 41, 04009. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20184104009

Warakanyaka, A., Johanes, M. and Yatmo, Y. (2017). Let There Be Light: The Informal Interiorization in High-Density Urban Settlement. In: CUI '17/V. International Contemporary Urban Issues Conference. Istanbul.

Warakanyaka, A. and Atmodiwirjo, P. (2017). Live Beyond Buildings: The street as the everyday living space in Istanbul, Turkey. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 2(6), p.303.

Warakanyaka, A., Zhara, L., & Atmodiwirjo, P. (2017). Feeling at Home in Starbucks: Revealing Transient Urban Interior. UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress.

Rara’s research interests focus on the informal and everyday practices of interiority within the urban context.

Her work explores how interior perspectives can be used to understand spatial phenomena in the city from the ‘inside’, offering alternative ways of knowing and interpreting urban environments.

She examines how interiority is shaped not only by professional practice, but also by ordinary citizens, who actively participate in the ongoing domestication of the city through everyday spatial practices.

2025 – present: co-authoring a forthcoming book chapter with Dr Tania Lopez-Winkler and Professor Graeme Brooker titled Participatory Interior Urbanism: A Typology of Actions in Jakarta’s Street Vending.

2025 – present: leading a co-authored forthcoming academic paper with Lydia Southwell and Diandra Saginatari exploring ‘re-drawing’ as a form of design enquiry in interior design education.