Community Empowerment in The Development of Urban Public Space

Design in Indonesia.
A case study in Solo, Indonesia
The process of development of public space in Indonesian cities is different
from the one of Western countries. For example, in many cities of Java, Santoso
(2008) said that the conception of an urban public space had been unknown
because of cultural and historical factors of their community settlements, which
had come from the typology of the kampong instead of a western city. Resident
of kampong, an autonomous self-governing unit, are used to solving their own
problems. A case in point is the use and planning of their public space. According
to Zaidulfar (2002), it was only in the colonial period that a western layer and
character began to emerge and paint the landscape of public space in several
colonial cities. However, instead of erasing the traditional kampong typology, the
new layer gave these cities dualistic modern-traditional character. The modern
layer is limited to being inhabited by European citizens.
The development of

modern public space have continued to this day.

Unfortunately, the developments created by municipal gonernments and private

sectors have ruined many traditional public space which had previously been
developed by local communities. Furthermore, the modern concept created by
public space designers is often not well-targeted. This leads to public spaces
being neglected or vandalized by people they were created for. Due to the
absence of the traditional concept, local communities create informal and
spontaneous public space based on the concept of a kampong. This
spontaneous use of public space has become the characteristic of an informal
public space. This spontaneity ranges from neutral activities, such as watching
people pass by the side of bridge or watching the trains go by near a railroad
crossing, to activities that lead to conflicts, for instance the use of pedestrians to
do business.
Sunaryo and Gunawan (2010) explained that some municipal governments
have been developing a new paradigm of public space although the approach is
still predominantly a one-way way paradigm of positivistic and deterministic
design. Understandably, participatory methods are considered impractical due to
time and bureaucratic constraints related to the budgeting period. Nevertheless,
this illustrates adequate efforts that have been made by municipal governments
to create balanced urban living in the context of public space.
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Taking into account the cultural background of urban Javanese inhabitants,

the development of public space design needs to be improved through
community involvement in order to better-suit the character of Javanese urban
cities. Comprehensive research must be done to find out how the community
should be involved in the development of city public space design.