Sustainability in High Dense River Bank Kampung: the Playground as the Responsive Space Utilization

Abstract

The growing mass migration descending upon Jakarta forced the urban lower class inhabitants to live in the dense settlement called kampungs. How the urban kampung inhabitants survive living in such densely populated place implied the hardship and their negotiation to cope with crowding. Our previous study had revealed how overcrowded houses in kampung are used and adapted as the places to live. This study attempted to explore the negotiation with crowding using the variables of the outdoor space within the context of the spatial arrangement of the whole kampung. The aim is to find out the relationship between the informal spaces’ physical characteristics and its potency to be occupied to form a playing space. We focused on how the children and teenagers utilize the available public place as a playground in high dense kampung of Bidara Cina Jakarta. We found that children and teenagers shaped the informal playing spaces at the Ciliwung riverbanks, alleys, and roads as the form of responsive space utilization. We also found that the normalization of the banks of the Ciliwung River was positively associated with a potential expansion of the playing space and playground.