Development for people
Development for people
It is always a pleasure to read Your Letters, as this column gives me various thoughts and information. Your readers' comments show that they do care about this country and its development.
The article, Indonesia still dreams of a new architectural paradigm, by Bambang Eryudhawan (April 2, 1995) raised comments from Damien Mate in Your Letters, Jakarta's city form, April 10, 1995.
In my point of view it is true that the market is responding to the challenge but there is still the question on how long the developers will keep their promises on providing "gardens".
Will they really build public, and green, spaces, or will they end up providing driving ranges and golf courses? Do they really plan a newly built environment, in accordance with social and environmental issues? Or will they just ignore the existing environment and draw their plans on a sheet of blank paper, as if they were creating a garden city from a desert, without any population. Do they provide places for the poor in their plans?
Sibylle Vincendon, in her article in the French daily Liberation (January 3, 1995; Architecture sans art, architecture without art) said that in the year of economic crises architects have lost their talent to create, as it is always money, rarely inspiration that drives the achievement of architecture and urban problems.
How about Indonesian architecture? Surely it is also dependent on the ones who have the power (money and/or policies) to support its achievement.
Years later urban problems will spread from Jakarta, or other big cities to villages. As investors are seeking new places for profits and leisure, and while people still regard massive buildings as proof of development, we will loose our beautiful nature.
I remember three years ago, in Kerinci, a foreign tourist advised me to tell my government not to build new roads and to let the old roads stay unrepaired in order to keep the nature as it was then. Thinking about the people who live there, and their needs of transportation to sell their products and to buy their needs, it was crazy advice, but thinking about the nature needing to be preserved, maybe it was the brightest idea.
MARIA MARGARETTA
Jakarta