TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'Kampung deret' residents unhappy with the city's floor plan
Getting there: Residents of Petogogan subdistrict watch the progress of kampung deret (village of row houses) construction
Change Size
Getting there: Residents of Petogogan subdistrict watch the progress of kampung deret (village of row houses) construction. One of Jakarta Governor Joko âJokowiâ Widodoâs projects, the village in Petogogan, has met criticism from would-be residents who said the city failed to listen to their ideas. (JP/Nadia Sarasati) (village of row houses) construction. One of Jakarta Governor Joko âJokowiâ Widodoâs projects, the village in Petogogan, has met criticism from would-be residents who said the city failed to listen to their ideas. (JP/Nadia Sarasati)
G
span class="inline inline-none">Getting there: Residents of Petogogan subdistrict watch the progress of kampung deret (village of row houses) construction. One of Jakarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's projects, the village in Petogogan, has met criticism from would-be residents who said the city failed to listen to their ideas. (JP/Nadia Sarasati)
One of Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's championed projects, kampung deret (village of row houses) in Petogogan, has drawn criticism from would-be residents who say the city has failed to listen to their thoughts on home design.
Residents of Petogogan subdistrict in South Jakarta, whose houses have been demolished to make way for the kampung deret, have said there were some elements in the design that they objected to.
The row houses will have porches, a luxury most families there do not need, said Tuti, a resident who will move into one of the houses.
'I don't need a porch and would prefer to use that space for a room,' Tuti said on Monday.
The neighborhood unit (RT) head, Yoso, said the 150 residents under his jurisdiction would receive only 20 homes. 'In my neighborhood, some units will house more than one family so the porch is not important for them,' he said.
Residents also complained that the porches would not have partitions, thus reducing privacy in the already densely populated neighborhood.
The Petogogan kampung deret will comprise 136 two-story houses of two sizes: 36 square meters and 18 square meters.
Many residents also said the L-shaped design of the stairs did not fit for the small spaces. 'The stairs should be straight instead of being L-shaped,' said Yoso.
Both Yoso and Tuti said that they were disappointed because the city administration ignored their input about the design of the houses.
Besides the designing of the kampung deret houses, Petogogan residents also complained about the prolonged construction, which was forcing them to spend more money on renting temporary houses.
Yoso said Jokowi promised that the construction, which started last November, would be completed within three months.
As of Monday, only the frames of the houses had been erected. The houses will have wider alleys than the previous dwellings, and there will be a park in the middle of the area.
'The park takes up too much space,' Tuti said. 'The space should have been used for a public facility for the residents to hold special events.'
The kampung deret project for Petogogan was launched on Oct. 31 last year by Jokowi. Earlier this month, Jokowi visited the Petogogan project and said that it would become the model for other kampung deret projects in the city because 'it was showing the best result', as reported by Antara news agency.
Meanwhile, residents in Tambora, West Jakarta, expressed satisfaction with their new row houses built behind shops on Jl. KH Moch. Mansyur under the kampung deret project.
'I have been living in my newly renovated house for about a week,' Umi, one of the Tambora residents, said on Tuesday.
Unlike the Petogogan kampung deret, which is being constructed by the city, Tambora residents were allowed to design their homes and make renovations on their own with a subsidy provided by the city administration.
'The city administration has only required the residents here to have the same façade and wall colors, to put up Betawi ornaments and to move the front of the house back by half a meter,' said Sulastri, another resident.
Umi said she had spent two months finishing renovations on her home.
Jakarta Housing and Administration Building Agency head Yonathan Pasodung said that the kampung deret project aimed at making Jakarta residential neighborhoods cleaner and more attractive.
The city has provided financing of Rp 1.5 million (US$126) per square meter for residents in densely populated areas to renovate their houses.
In general, residents receive the money and make renovations by themselves but Petogogan is a special case because its residents agreed to consolidate their plots so that as to have houses of the same size, Yonathan said.
He said in designing the houses, the agency cooperated with the Public Works Ministry's Housing Research and Development Center (Puskim) in Bandung, West Java.
'The design is called the Healthy Modest Instantaneous House [Risha],' he said.
Yonathan said the city was not taking input from residents in Petogogan because the design was fixed. 'It's the best design for the houses,' he said. (nai)
