Preserving Culture in Jakarta’s Villages

Jakarta Globe, Suzannah Beiner, July 15, 2013

This picture shows houses built on a the banks of a river in a slum in Jakarta
 on June 11, 2013. Jakarta administration has proposed moving river-side squatters
 to ‘vertical kampungs’ to alleviate annual flooding. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

None of the lecturers at the Jakarta Vertical Kampung seminar this month defined the word “kampung.” Neither did the guests forming the panel invited to speak about subjects related to the current state of kampungs and plans for affordable housing.

In Indonesian, kampung means village. But the lack of an agreed definition at the event did not inhibit dialogue about introducing a new dimension to affordable housing models for kampung areas: verticality.

The Jakarta office of independent design firm SHAU initiated the master class, conference and exhibition, all of which focused on the Jakarta Vertical Kampung. The Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis hosted all three events.

The July 7 conference marked the culmination of a 12-day master class between young Indonesian architects and guest teachers, and also the opening of an exhibition that finished on Monday.

The exhibition showcased two collections devoted to models of redesigned kampungs in Jakarta. One collection contained independent projects by professional architects while the other introduced the six models made during the master class.

High rise village?

The international lecturers who kicked off the conference were from diverse fields and had differing opinions on the value in designing high-rise kampungs.

Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana’s Eko Prawoto, the only Indonesian lecturer, and the University of Edinburgh’s Stephen Cairns were outspoken critics of the idea that high-rise kampungs can meet Jakarta’s need for affordable housing while retaining the kampung identity.

Eko opened his lecture by pointing out his lack of experience with designing high-rise buildings. “Jogja [Yogyakarta] is low density and doesn’t have high-rise buildings,” Eko said.

Eko suggested architects should shift from an egocentric or Western approach when redesigning kampungs. Instead they should look to the people living in the community as the inspiration, in order to create designs that fit a community rather than forcing a community to fit into a design.

“I would like to share my thinking concerning the role of architects. It’s more about attitude and cultural approach than purely architecture. What we can learn from kampung is informality,” Eko said.

Eko’s slideshow took the audience into existing kampungs, with pictures of living conditions and adaptations.

His one-hour time lapse of a weekend market in Surabaya generated mild laughter from the audience as they watched a deceptively quiet courtyard burst into a buzzing marketplace and then fade again into calm emptiness.

Homegrown

Eko was the only lecturer to focus solely on Indonesia’s kampung culture.

According to Eko, kampung denizens’ autonomy is critical to fostering community life and self-governance.

“We might think that this kind of chaotic form is not beautiful at all or that it’s very dirty. But we can also see from a different perspective that this is a different kind of intellectual ability,” Eko said.

One slide presented a picture of women hanging laundry early in the morning juxtaposed against a picture taken much later in the day of the same lines being used as an impromptu badminton court.

“They’re able to manage themselves, to create rules that are appropriate for the benefit of the community. [Kampung dwellers] are able to make rules to improve [their] living condition,” Eko said.

His final message was one of caution.

“We need to keep the scale to a manageable size. You have to keep in mind the available skill sets,” he said. “We have to limit our roles as architects. We should give people more of a chance to decide. Life is bigger than an architect.”

Cairns used Singapore’s success with the transition to high-rises as a lens to examine the viability of vertical kampungs in Jakarta. He found Jakarta’s existing infrastructure came up short.

“Fifty years ago, Singapore undertook the kampung-to-high-rise project. … It was a very dramatic, a very traumatic and a very demanding and aggressive transformation,” Cairns said.

Cairns related how in 1961, a fire broke out in the Bukit Ho Swee settlement, killing four people and completely destroying the kampung.

The following day, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had “a series of responses” that centered on high-rise housing models.

“So, in a way, almost overnight the transformation from kampungs to high-rises was achieved through this highly disastrous situation,” Cairns said.

Cairns said the transition relied on a “huge amount of bureaucratic work and technical work” from a highly centralized state.

Cairns noted how the Housing and Development Board (HDB) took an active role in re-educating citizens not only “how to live in a modern way” but also how to live accommodatingly in a multistory building.

Educational catalogs were sent to each high-rise residence, informing the 85 percent of Singaporeans living in them how to decorate, handle domestic tasks and operate lifts, among other lessons.

“My research colleague and I have published some of the kind of detail required to sustain this kind of high-rise housing. It involves daily, weekly, monthly, three-year, 15-year maintenance cycles to sustain the fabric of this kind of condition,” Cairns said.

‘The most desirable housing’

The last lecturer at the conference was University of Seoul’s Bin Kim.

Kim presented a converse outcome of what can happen to high-rise social housing by examining South Korea’s rebuilding process following the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.

High-rises, which began as affordable housing for the “native people” of Seoul, are now “the most desirable housing in Seoul,” according to Kim.

“Apateu started as affordable housing and is no longer affordable,” said Kim, using the Korean word for apartment.

Kim said that following the rapid population growth of the 1960s, the government responded by building high-rises “in quantity over quality.”

From the 1970s to 1990s, rapid economic growth created a rise in housing development. In turn, the government responded with the adoption of new laws to protect development.

By 2000, high-rises were being built on a much grander scale. Apartments began to be constructed by private companies and branded, such as the Lotte Company’s Lotte Castle high-rise.

“Gangnam, you probably know that from the song by PSY, this area is the most trendy area to live,” Kim said of the Seoul neighborhood.

High-rises have now become so unaffordable for South Koreans that they are looking into other types of affordable urban housing, according to Kim.

Shared housing, where 10 or more people share the common facilities of a kitchen, living room and recreational room, and have private bedrooms, have gained in popularity. Other people are turning to duplex houses.

Following the lectures, a panel of representatives from the public and private sectors discussed topics relating to affordable housing and kampung needs.

Toward the end of the conference, both Dutch Ambassador Tjeerd de Zwaan and Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu gave their support to the event, offering their views about the importance of architecture and commending the master-class participants.

The ambassador said he was pleased that during the master class Erasmus Huis had been “full of action” as a hub for “Dutch professionals and young Indonesians to interact.”

“This type of venue is especially here to build a bridge between our two countries, Indonesia and the Netherlands,” de Zwaan said.

The ambassador said architects should be aware of their influence on people’s lives and that they should design “practicable solutions.”

“The social and economic environment of the buildings should be inspired by the people who will live there in the future,” the ambassador said.

Questions remain

Mari said it was important for Jakarta to “retain and regain its character and soul” in the pursuit of affordable housing.

“Let’s save the villages that are in Jakarta, the kampung, before we become too affluent and they’re gone,” the minister said.

Mari also discussed her wish to end the long daily commutes of those people who migrated to the suburbs because they were pushed out of the city due to rising housing costs.

“Keep the people in Jakarta living in the city of Jakarta and not just on the outskirts,” she said.

Dede Krishnadianty, a master’s student at the University of Melbourne, said she was disappointed by the lack of government representatives in attendance.

“It’s academic snobbery. This is a community-based participation project,” Dede said.

She expressed frustration at the vagueness of the word kampung.

“The government needs to differentiate the term itself. What is kampung? What are slums?” Dede said.

“Kampung is the culture of Indonesia.”

This sentiment, echoed throughout the conference, will perhaps prove the most challenging issue in addressing the housing issue. Attendees said the preservation of culture was as important as budgetary concerns.

Six designs were sent to Jakarta provincial administration “for next steps,” according to the Jakarta Vertical Kampung website.