Vernacular governance and spatial transformations of low-cost apartments in Klender, Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper examines vernacular governance and spatial transformations of low-cost apartments (LCAs). LCAs are a plausible solution to housing shortages for the urban poor in cities that face constantly increasing land values and limited space. Although prohibited by law, various spatial transformations occur to meet immediate needs. This case study addresses the practice of vernacular governance in the spatial transformations of LCAs through the vernacularisation by nomotropism to meet residents’ needs and solve their problems without the government’s complicated bureaucracy. Atomisation occurs from the neighbourhood to the molecular scale, among next-door neighbours and by creating multiple, distinctive vernacular governances on each LCA floor. This study offers a new perspective on housing policy in terms of distributing decision making to the community, thus creating flexible appropriation of space to meet residents’ ever-changing and immediate needs.