Architect urges review of Greater Jakarta planning
JAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the city's Urban Design Review Board, M. Danisworo said all development plans for Greater Jakarta should be re-evaluated.
This would provide a basis for the municipal administration to centralize planning, Danisworo told The Jakarta Post in an interview at the 7th Asian Congress of Architects, which ended on Thursday.
Several new satellite towns, all based on the individual developers own designs, have been cropping up in the city's outskirts, he said.
"Greater Jakarta must have one plan," Danisworo said.
He added that he supported the controversial suggestion from former environment minister Emil Salim that Greater Jakarta must be under one authority.
Whether the 5.7-square-kilometer area should be led under one governor at the level of minister, Danisworo said, has become a political issue.
"But for the authority to make central planning, I think Greater Jakarta should be led by a junior minister," Danisworo said.
The junior minister would have access to the cabinet, national utilities and public service, such as the state-owned railway company, and report to the President, he said.
The guidelines for Greater Jakarta, which has around 15 million people, would ensure not only better physical development, but also improved social, environmental and cultural development, Danisworo said.
An existing body called the Greater Jakarta (Jabotabek) Development Coordination Board does not have such authority. Governor Surjadi Soedirdja himself has lamented its shortcomings in handling problems such as congestion and garbage.
The condition of the sprawling metropolis and its new satellite towns will get worse if preparations for central planning do not start immediately, Danisworo said. The "egoism" of designers and developers will spur more unnecessary facilities like malls which all attract more traffic, he added.
Developers have said that given the absence of spatial plans for Greater Jakarta, they cannot be blamed if one day their real estate developments flood.
The individually proposed designs are all approved by relevant authorities like the provincial offices of the National Land Agency, even though these authorities may lack the proper data on land use, Danisworo said.
Currently the city only has the 1985-2005 spatial plan for Jakarta, which is currently under review.
The plan drawn for Greater Jakarta, Danisworo added, must incorporate the aspirations of the private sector which will be doing most of the building.
The developers of the new towns have argued that in time their towns will be independent of the city as residents will no longer commute to Jakarta.
"But before the new towns have an economic basis to provide jobs, things will get worse," Danisworo said.
The central plans must aim to link the new towns with the city, for instance regarding drainage and roads.
If each developer builds its own drainage system which may be unnecessary, he said, the consumer is the one who bears the extra cost.
Centralized plans would also prevent the emergence of kampongs within the new towns, the architect said.
Danisworo, who advocates that all humans in an area should be central to any planning, said the workers who come to build the new towns eventually settle in the areas. But residential sites for them were not planned.
He said the developers should at least provide public services for low income inhabitants in their area, such as clean water networks and more access roads apart from one small path.
The urban design review team is trying to prevent further damage in the city, Danisworo said, by drawing up urban design guidelines.
"We are very thankful to Governor Surjadi for his support," he said. "But sadly, only foreign architects appreciate these guidelines. It has taken me 15 years to convince local colleagues," whom he said are not trained in relating architecture to human surroundings.
With such guidelines, buildings will no longer be designed per plot, but with more consideration to surrounding public interests, he said. (anr)