No fences between buildings
No fences between buildings
JAKARTA (JP): The municipality is launching a pilot project to eliminate fences between various high-rise buildings situated within one city block, in an effort to redesign the areas and to make greater way for pedestrians.
The project, known as the urban design guideline project (UGDL), will first be tried on the block that houses Wisma Antara, Bangkok Bank Building and the new Migas building which is still under construction.
"Eventually the three buildings will not be separated by fences. This will make it easier for pedestrians in the area to move around," said Soeharto, the head of the City Supervision and Development of the Municipality.
Soeharto said the projects will also be tried on other blocks along Jl. Kebon Sirih and Jl. Thamrin.
The authorities hope the lanes linking the Wisma Antara, Bangkok Bank and Migas buildings will be developed into public utility areas, parks and food courts.
He said that managements from the three buildings have agreed on the project. "We hope the project will be installed in time for the completion of the Migas building," he said as quoted by the Antara news agency.
If the UGDL concept proves successful, other blocks along Jl. Thamrin, Jl. Sudirman and Jl Rasuna Said will also be encouraged to adopt it, he added.
On a separate occasion, the head of the City Planning Development Agency (Bapeda), Erry Chayaridipura, said the UGDL project is also being developed on the new "super blocks" now underway in many parts of Jakarta.
The concept, he said, aims to make the most out of the limited space that exists between high rise buildings. The emergence of high rise buildings necessitate the establishment of parks in the city, he said.
"We don't want to turn Jakarta into a sea of concretes and glasses," he said.
The municipality in November waived a regulation restricting the high rise buildings to 32 floors, paving the way for the construction of superblocks.
Traffic will also be relieved, allowing people to take shortcuts when moving from one building to another. (emb)