Indonesia still dreams of a new architectural paradigm
Indonesia still dreams of a new architectural paradigm
By Bambang Eryudhawan
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian cities are still being built
according to the old paradigm of horizontal city development.
This decentralized pattern causes urban sprawl and, sooner or
later, the borders of cities will overlap.
The relationship between a town and a village, according to
their respective roles in an ecosystem, tends to be
disadvantageous to the villages. When the community slowly loses
its power, forests, hills and farm land also disappear.
Thousands of individual residential units with spacious yards
and mega shopping centers will take over, ignoring the negative
impact on the environment. Greed makes our cities a dangerous
environmental parasite.
Suburbia is supported by the automobile culture which in turn
is the cause of air pollution, conspicuous energy consumption and
traffic congestion. The ease of getting credit for housing
through the KPR BTN and Papan Sejahtera schemes also accounts for
the destruction of the environment. The ease of obtaining
building permits and the feeble control on development by
regional governments allows unscrupulous developers to strip the
land.
This anti-urban paradigm gradually annihilates the character
of a city. It focuses on decentralization, the automobile culture
of those who believe that mobility is far more important than
accessibility, reaching housing supply targets for the sake of
statistics, economic motives without social and environmental
concerns, and the act of building -- which is always seen as
development. Architects don't have much choice in this paradigm.
They must compromise and create a built environment for the sake
of an ideal goal, or be artists preoccupied with esthetics, not
bothering with social and environmental issues.
Indonesian urban morphology is shaped by the actors of
development fighting for their own interests.
This involution is performed by all parties according to their
role. Even if a consciousness that it is time to resolve the
urban crisis existed, the result would be uncertain because of
the prevailing paradigm. Traffic congestion will continue because
workplaces will continue to get further away from residences,
fertile soil will disappear, water reserves will be depleted and
cities will become corrosive. If short-term interests continue to
dominate, Indonesian cities will not be strong or powerful.
Architectural development will only struggle with the problems
of superficial esthetics because architects will find their
authority limited to facades by specialized fields that slowly
devour the authority of the architect in the planning of built
environment developments. It is no wonder that architects are
often mocked as cosmetics specialists.
To recapture their privilege, architects must challenge the
current paradigm. Only then will they be able to secure their
position in society as respectable professionals. A step must be
made toward nurturing architectural works that account for the
ecosystem.
New paradigm
A new architectural paradigm can be based on the premise of
smaller, more efficient cities. Greater building density as a
policy of development planning, as is being accomplished by the
city of Jakarta, should be the built environment development
plan.
The creation of perimeter blocks with inner courtyards are
clearly more appropriate in promoting positive urban life. Land
will be optimally utilized and buildings will once again become
intimate parts of public space.
It is time for pedestrians, bicyclists and public
transportation to have greater priority than cars. The city
should not be designed by traffic engineers who sacrifice urban
spaces to the myth of mobilization. It fails to guarantee
anything except the entrance of thousands of new cars.
Roads can be seen as positive spaces where people meet each
other. This interaction requires the effort of serious traffic
management with the opportunity to explore new territory away
from the shadow of the old paradigm.
Urban development oriented toward public transportation
terminals, which act as development nodes, will open up new
ideas. Urban functions will be regulated by the distance
pedestrians or bicyclists can comfortably travel. Transportation
modes will change and urban life will be easily controllable,
more humanitarian and not land-greedy.
With an efficient and compact urban concept, the amount of
mixed-use buildings will increase. Workplaces will be near
residences which saves time and money, and increases human
interaction around the clock.
Guaranteeing water absorption and clean air will be easier. In
high-density cities there will be a greenbelt of urban parks
available to everyone. Water absorption areas will be safe
because they will be the property of the community.
Low-rise high-density buildings with humans as the main
component of a positive urban life, and the commitment to combine
the various urban functions into a compact and efficient
receptacle, will certainly create an environment conducive for
the progression of architecture in Indonesia. Style will no
longer be the driving force, but will become part of a social and
environmentally responsive architecture. When this is achieved,
Indonesian architects will at least recover part of their lost
authority. Maybe from there, Indonesian Architecture will be in
sight.
Bambang Eryudhawan is a Fulbright scholar who received his
master's of architecture from the University of St. Louis, St.
Louis, Missouri.