Magersari : the spatial-culture of kampung settlements as an urban strategy in Indonesian cities and urban housing

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.

This paper concerns the issue of kampungs of Jakarta. It proposes a conceptual model to readdress the kampung issue by considering them not as problem of poverty or informal settlement. It is proposed that the model needs to shift its paradigm towards a more integral view; seeing kampungs as an inseparable part of metropolitan cities. Some examples, using Jakarta as the case study, are put forward to support this argument. It is proposed that kampungs can be viewed as an urban strategy to overcome housing and massive migration to Jakarta. It starts by examining the origin of kampungs, its relationship with urban and economic development, and the transformation and socio-economic processes in kampungs to try to understand the spatial formation of kampungs. It is argued that the spatial formation of kampung is deeply rooted in inhabitants’ everyday socio-economic practices and spatial-culture. The word ‘magersari’ – a spatial concept based on an historical tendency towards social compartmentalisation and extended family systems in the culture – is introduced to explore the issue. This paper ends with a call for a redesign strategy in kampungs in which the relation between economic processes, spatial-culture, and urban policy is emphasised.