Flats culturally suited for Indonesian people

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has refuted the opinion that flats are culturally not suited for Indonesian people, saying shrinking land space and increasing demand for housing required the development of flats in big cities.

"Many people have said that flats are culturally not suited for Indonesians. I think this is not true," the vice president said when opening a national working meeting of the Indonesian Developers` Association (Aperti) here on Thursday.

To support his argument, the vice president pointed at the traditional `rumah gadang` (big house) in West Sumatra and the `rumah panjang` (long house) tribal house in Kalimantan.

Kalla said rumah gadang and rumah panjang were basically flats in other forms. Each of these typically traditional houses was home to many families.

"The difference between rumah gadang or rumah panjang and flats is that the former are built in horizontal direction while the latter are built vertically, one storey on another," the vice president said adding that the concept of both kinds of dwelling was the same, namely houses for large numbers of communal families.

Kalla said that in order to overcome the problems of shrinking land space and increasing demand for housing, the only correct choice was to develop flats.

On the occasion, the vice president also promised to develop flats on the land that was once the site of Kemayoran airport.

He said the former airport site would be developed as a people`s housing complex through a flat development program.

"Kemayoran should be made a flat development center next year. It is wrong for people to divide it into lots of land illegally," he said.

He said flat development in a big city like Jakarta was a must. Horizontal houses could no longer be developed in big cities.

The vice president also called on Aperti to help develop flats. The development of low-cost houses so far by Aperti had gained significant recognition. Flats in big cities were also classified as modest houses.

Modest houses would continue to grow in line with the development of the people`s economy, he said.

"If people early in their life-time need small houses, now with higher welfare levels, they want bigger ones," Kalla said.