and Manifestation, Medan, 13
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356 One of the challenges in city developments, which has not still be
seriously dealt with, is doing city modernizations with the sensibility of kampong reality as a local element and to integrate it
into the urban system. Therefore, the opinion that ignores kampong as a local concept in the city development also means
rejecting the apt reality of urbanity in Indonesia.
Architecturally, a city can be perceived as a whole unity which includes a planned part of city and an organic one which
grows spontaneously along with the community needs. The difference between the space configuration which is created
spontaneously, informally, and is a result of formal rational planning, can actually strengthen the urban characters. As a
settlement area, kampong does not be able to be disintegrated from the other parts of a city. In other words, physical-spatially,
those two spatial configurations should be integrated. Both physically and socially, kampong is the part of the city which
always exists and be needed in urban life in Indonesia. In Bandung and lots of other big cities, kampong is a type of
settlement which has been there from the beginning of the city; therefore, it takes role in building the city characters and
morphologies. On the other hand, the city development which is held along this time tends not to be aware or even neglect
kampong’s roles in the city modernization process. Therefore, one of the purposes of this study is explaining the kampong’s
existence and roles in the city. Such issue is a real challenge in city developments. In the discipline of architecture, the problems
of spatial linkages between the kampong and the city are almost neglected in understandings urbanity in Indonesia.
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study questions the position of kampong in Indonesian urbanity by revealing the physical-spatial integration
between kampong and the other parts of a city. Architecturally, kampong is an artifact of the city which possesses a unique
space configuration. The distinctiveness of its configuration
makes kampong has “a forming value” of city physical characters. As a city system, the kampong space configurations are related to
each other and cannot be disintegrated from the particular city part which surrounds it.
To clarify the working thesis, this study pursues the answers of these following questions:
[1] How to explain kampong’s roles in the city?
[2] How to understand kampong as the forming force of the city’s physical character?
4. RESEARCH METHODS
A city as a system consists of parts which are interacting and influencing one another. Kampong physical-spatial
and Manifestation, Medan, 13
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November 2007
357 integration in a city is perceived as a “part to whole” relation. see
Figure 2. The relation is not seen as an aggregative process which shapes global form but as an integration system which is
more macro city, modernity into the more micro one kampong, localtraditional value.
The study is done in two phases. The first phase is a literature study to explain the research premises and justify why
city kampong deserves to be revised. The objective is to position kampong as a reality in city modernizations in Indonesia. The
approach of social change theories are used for understanding the correlation between the local element kampong and modern
element city. Kampong is one of city settlement types. The settlement function is the
raison d’etre of kampong in the city. It is the state of art in architectural research which is done in the next
phase. The second phase is the empirical study done onto the three particular kampongs which has been chosen as the case
studies. Based on the empirical study about kampong space integration in the city, an analysis-interpretation method is done to
understand the kampong position in urbanity in Indonesia. The analysis is done by [1] recording building mass configurations and
spaces in the three kampongs as case studies and learning spatial configuration patterns from the existing condition on sites,
[2] through thorough participative examining and then formulating morphological themes which base the space configurations and
[3] interpreting factors which become the space configuration structure.
5. KAMPONG AS A REALITY IN CITY MODERNIZATION
Kampong as a local element of the city
The study of kampong existence in the city cannot be disintegrated
from the
city modernization
discourse. Modernization is a process of social changes which happens in
the society because of the congregation between local values and foreign ones. Therefore, the position of kampong as city local
element needs to be understood in the social changing context. Some relevant theories which have been developed to explain the
social changes can be categorized into three paradigms, as follows:
[1]
Evolution paradigm
Evolution paradigm sees the social changes go on slowly and cumulatively. The paradigm perceived the traditions which
represent past era would be faded and in the end would be gradually replaced by modernity Rostow, 1971. In architecture
discourse, Roger Trancik 1986, in his book Finding Lost Space, obviously showed how modern architecture movement neglected
and rejected traditional space planning principles of past eras.
