DESIGNING TOWARDS A FIRE-RESISTANT NEIGHBORHOOD IN SURABAYA, INDONESIA

Abstract

The way the built environment is shaped greatly affects its performance in providing a container of activities for its users. Being the second largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabaya has very high population and building density. Though the city is not prone to any natural disasters, the current population and building density make it prone to man-made disasters such as flooding and urban fires. This study was built on the idea that good environmental design can lower urban fire vulnerability. Built environment components were identified using Lynch’s urban design criteria while Cai and Wang provided basic guidance to the redesign of the built environment with their Safety-based Urban Design idea. The outcome of this endeavor was an environmental design approach that applied psychological safety, behavioral safety, defense for safety and safety against disaster values into the built environment’s paths, edges, nodes, districts and landmarks. This paper concludes that good environmental design can improve resilience by intervening in all stages of a disaster or an emergency situation. It can support mitigation efforts thus increasing disaster preparedness. Environmental design can also make a difference in responding to an emergency situation. The most likely approach to improving resilience in urban areas is to acknowledge both anthropogenic and bio-physic aspects that make up the environment. Urban fire awareness must be raised as the physical environment is shaped one component at a time.