Preservation laws need amending
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)