Preservation laws need amending

JAKARTA (JP): One difficulty in preserving historical sites was that city rules were limited to maintaining buildings but not the buildings' environment, the head of the city's architectural team said.

The Bandung Institute of Technology's M. Danisworo, addressing a town renovation workshop Thursday, said this was evident in the preservation of the Menteng area, Central Jakarta.

Commercial activities entering Menteng were slowly changing the elite residential area's 1920s architecture, he said.

The buildings once housed Dutch colonial government employees who worked in nearby government buildings.

What Menteng needed was the preservation of its buildings and their environment, Danisworo said.

Menteng must be preserved as a residential area while functioning as a transition area to the commercial areas along Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Jl. Wahid Hasyim and Jl. Cikini Raya, he said.

Traffic was getting heavier on Menteng's residential roads, the architect said.

"This will eventually lead to large-scale non-residential buildings," Danisworo said.

Open space in Menteng like parks were still functioning but had physically degraded, he said.

The rapid development of Menteng's surroundings meant there was a need to divide Menteng into three areas, Danisworo said.

These should be a core area displaying Menteng's characteristics, a supporting area with minimal economic activities and a transition area where economic activities were allowed.

"This area should be Menteng's borderline. It would be allowed to accommodate economic needs but these needs must be kept away from the supporting and core area," Danisworo said.

Such efforts needed public and private sector cooperation, he said.

The workshop ended yesterday after participants toured preserved sites in Jakarta.

The city's renovation agency and the private Tarumanegara university organized the talks which began Wednesday.

The aim was for people from 12 Indonesian cities to share their experiences in preserving old sites. (02/anr)