JP/Utami Kusumawati

Urban kampungs, or urban villages are usually considered slum areas, illegal settlements and densely populated neighborhoods, and are often torn down to make way for skyscrapers. But urban kampungs can also mean organic settlements or close-knit communities in urban settings. Behind the grim look of every urban kampung lies appealing characteristics not everyone may appreciate.

Unique architectural design

Urban kampungs are known for their homes with unique architectural designs that differ from most modern houses typically found in big cities. Houses in urban kampungs are built by homeowners themselves without the help of well-known architects. As a result, the designs of houses differ from one another. Sandyawan Sumardi, urban poor activist and head of the Ciliwung Merdeka Community, says that this architectural inconsistency makes the overall look of an urban kampung unique.

'€œIf there are 1,000 kampungs in one city, I assure you there will be 1,000 different faces and spirits,'€ he says.

He says that a house in an urban kampung is unique because it reflects the background of the owner who designs it.

A symbol of diversity

The distinctive architectural design of houses in urban kampungs represent the diversity found in each kampung. People living in kampungs come from different cultural and religious backgrounds but the differences do not stop them from living in the same neighborhood and collaborating with one another to develop their community.

'€œPeople in kampungs respect diversity,'€ said Sandyawan.

He says that social interactions in kampungs are more intense compared to other settlements in a city, creating a more friendly ground for social harmony.

'€œA kampung is like a mini campus. Residents learn to value pluralism and become tolerant,'€ says Bakti Setiawan, an urban expert at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Central Java.

Model for '€˜compact city'€™

Compact city is an urban design concept that promotes relatively high residential density with mixed land uses, and urban kampungs, to some extent, already represent this definition.

Muhammad Sani Rochyansyah, another UGM urban expert, says that some features in urban kampungs such as, among other things, population density and land efficiency are in line with compact city'€™s principles.

He says that in kampungs, people use their land both for housing and non-housing purposes such as commercial activities.

'€œThis [mixed uses of land] in turn makes kampungs more liveable,'€ he says.

Providing shelter for urban poor

Sandyawan says that the ability for the poor to survive in the city depends heavily on whether urban kampungs can protect them, because the majority of urban poor are living in kampungs.

'€œKampungs are the mothers of the urban poor,'€ Bakti says.

Kampungs often house people who have recently relocated to the city.

Urban kampungs, in fact, are home for 70 to 80 percent of residents in big cities, including Jakarta.

'€œMeanwhile, government and private housing can only fulfill 15 percent of residential needs in big cities in Indonesia,'€ he adds.

Distinctive economic activities

Urban poor survive in cities because urban kampung residents have developed economic activities in their own community.

There are people who make a living as scavengers and street musicians while others sell food and snacks. Sandyawan said that this system had saved the lives of many poor people in Jakarta.

Bakti said that kampungs and cities should be developed at the same time because the two were like two sides of a coin as kampungs needed cities to develop and cities also needed kampungs because the majority of its residents lived in them.