In the Global South, rapid urbanisation has given rise to self-organised settlements, challenging conventional urban planning. This research essay investigates the architectural dynamics underlying Indonesia’s kampungs, where communities build environments independently, responding to socio-economic needs.
The focus of the essay is the spatial and social structures formed through self-organisation, which contrasts with top-down urban planning. The argument posits that these kampungs, despite being classified as informal, actually exhibit and even enforce intricate architectural systems of resilience, adaptability, and communal efforts. This is realised in their organic configurations of spaces, multifunctional spaces, and communal infrastructures, which are developed in response to the needs of the local population.
Through this architectural lens, the essay argues that kampungs are legitimate urban forms, exemplifying an alternative model of urban development. From this study, one can make an analysis that reframes the understanding of self-organisation in the Global South, further posing an inquiry into the interplay between governance, community agency and architectural practices. This indeed encourages diverse perspectives, calling for a redefinition of informal settlements as essential components of the urban fabric, contributing to people-centred cities.
Introduction
In many cities of the Global South, informal governance quickly correlated with poverty and inequality, which is a good source for the development of informal settlements. These areas, characterised mainly by spontaneous and self-organised development, thrive outside formal planning frameworks. While such areas are replete with life, residents encounter trouble accessing basic services, land rights, and opportunities available in more formal settings. In such challenged cities, urban life is a complex amalgam of human behaviour where every citizen contributes to the city’s fabric by interacting with built and open spaces. People manoeuvre between formal regulations and informal practices in order to fulfil their day-to-day needs, thereby giving rise to a fluid and dynamic lifestyle.
Self-organisation is vital when it comes to affordable infrastructure and housing. However, these are not constructed according to official standards and often clash with them.
They learn to use limited resources to improve their living conditions. At its essence, the self-organised city is an expression of urban culture, social norms and values of residents who are part of a larger complex system that self-organise and, in some cases, self-govern (Suhartini & Jones, 2020). This bottom-up strategy demonstrates the strength of community initiatives working together to build unofficial but effective urban structures. This study looks into the dynamics of the self-organised city in Indonesia, utilising the kampung system as a lens through which to see informal settlements. Kampungs have become a central part of Indonesian urbanism.
Kampungs emerge in response to rapid urbanisation and the exclusionary nature of formal planning discussed above. However, it is vital for providing affordable housing, social networks and livelihoods for low- to middle-income groups. By analysing the morphology and social organisation of kampungs such as those in Jakarta and Bandung, this study aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how informal settlements reshape formal city structures in the Global South.
Body
Notion of Self Organisation:
The concept of self-organisation in informal settlements is a key principle that reveals how urban spaces evolve within a city. The observations of urbanists like Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander provide the basis for this theory. According to Jacobs, cities are shaped by the grassroots interactions of common people, frequently without the assistance of central planning. Urban systems become rich and functional, yet unexpected, as a result of these local behaviours (Jacobs, 1961).
In a similar vein, Alexander highlighted how historically cities have grown through bottom-up processes, with the needs and interactions of the community influencing their development throughout time (Alexander, 1964). This self-organisation is visible in Indonesian informal communities called kampungs, where inhabitants shape their surroundings based on their limited means and urgent demands (Kamalipour, 2016).
Although the physical organisation of these places may appear disorganised, it is the consequence of impromptu, human-scale interactions. People make networks and share resources, which means, as a result, that patterns and shapes appear as naturally as possible. These loose processes of development, organic and non-formalised, indicate a certain kind of urban resilience that helps cities adapt in changing circumstances.
It is in this sense that there is no central authority capable of exercising full control over the complexity of a city, and self-organisation plays a vital role in the recalibration of its socio-spatial form. The idea of self-organisation underlines the dynamic adaptive nature of cities, such as kampungs, because of the informality of these activities, offering a system that is adaptable and, above all, self-sufficient. This paradigm in urban development shows how strong community-driven change can be, and it really shakes the conventional planning techniques. Indeed, it affects the entire city in really great ways. Indeed, this has an impact on the entire city.
Self-help Housing & Order
Self-help housing is a key outcome of self-organisation in informal settlements, which involves residents incrementally improving their homes using available resources, finances, and materials. This process is especially common in developing countries, where residents adapt their housing based on their immediate needs (Rukmana, 2018). Their houses will then gradually become a blend of forms and materials as they incrementally improve year by year by accumulating small amounts of material and labour.
British architect John Turner defends the principle of incrementality through self-help housing because it is flexible and less costly than larger-scale redevelopment. He emphasised the value of incrementalism through self-help housing as a flexible and affordable alternative to large-scale redevelopment. This approach empowers communities to adapt and evolve their housing in response to changing needs, leveraging local knowledge and community networks (Sengupta & Shaw, 2019). In Indonesia’s kampungs, self-help housing remains a traditional strategy which is directly tailored to residents’ socioeconomic conditions.
Another important characteristic of self-organization is ‘order’. This term has been a very critical part of the comparison between formal planned cities and informal, unplanned settlements.
In this context, owing to the rapidity of industrialisation and urbanisation that occurred without adequate infrastructural provision, high-order Euclidean geometry has been generally opted for in the conception of urban plans to mitigate the chaos resulting (Jones, 2017; Hall, 1988).
Informal settlements are usually considered disordered bodies by their disorderly morphologies, absence of services, and diverse architectural languages. However, scholars such as Batty and Longley counter that the settlements indeed represent a different form and deeper order. This order usually involves fractal geometry, social norms, and self-organisation. A deeper order is defined in scale and adaptability, which undermines perspectives of the latter urban disorder.
Understanding the Evolution of Self-Organisation in Kampungs
Indonesia’s rapid urbanisation has led to increasing housing and service costs, compelling socio-economically disadvantaged groups to settle in informal, self-organised settlements, or kampungs. Kampung settlements are typically built illegally using shoddy materials and accommodate marginalised populations within cities like Jakarta and Bandung. Though informal in character, kampungs are part and parcel of city life, reflecting the resilience of its residents. Colonial policies had entrenched spatial segregation, with kampungs for the poor and elite spaces for the well-off.
Today, kampungs still suffer from crowding and substandard infrastructure in addition to insecure land tenure; however, they continue to survive under informal land-sharing and incremental construction, catering to the needs of a disadvantaged population in the urban areas (Van der Molen, 1993; Jones, 2020; Kusno, 2019).
Case study of Lebak Siliwangi, Bandung, Indonesia
Kampung Lebak Siliwangi in Bandung showcases self-organisation through organic, incremental development.. Bottom-up strategies of residents adapt homes and public spaces to changing needs and resources as they expand houses either vertically or horizontally by using lightweight materials. The changes respond to the growth of households, economic changes, and environmental pressures.
Kampung Lebak Siliwangi is an example of self-organisation, especially as seen in the way water supply, waste, and sanitation systems have come together. Originally designated as a green belt in the Dutch colonial period, this inner-city kampung has become part of important facilities such as universities and offices.
The production of informal urban development has resulted in a variety of uses, ranging from houses to canteens and laundries, initiated by residents. Pathways, open spaces, and courtyards were formed based on interactions through daily life rather than formal planning. Examples such as those of infrastructure made up in areas include water provision, being a mix of self-built, community-built, and government-built systems; thus, it displays flexibility when it comes to the delivery of kampung services with minimal oversight.
This approach to development highlights the adaptability and resilience of informal settlements. Kampung Lebak Siliwangi stands as a testament to how informal settlements can evolve organically, shaped by the principles of self-organisation, adaptability, and incremental development (Jones, 2020).
Case study of Kampung Marlina, Jakarta, Indonesia
Kampung Marlina in North Jakarta is one example of self-organisation by the communities faced with neglect and environmental degradation. This kampung was initiated by lower-income families, and over the years, it has been threatened by displacement through urban expansion and evictions. The irregular grid presents ad-hoc blocks interlinked by narrow alleys, and over 83% of the area is covered by housing.
The residents have organised themselves despite the recent formation in such a way as to improve their conditions in a limited space, given the problem with drainage. The groups, for example, Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, have initiated collaborative planning in Kampung Marlina through its Kampung Improvement Program that focuses on upgrading homes and infrastructure while promoting bottom-up driven solutions in achieving more livable environments.
The kampung’s evolution reflects the resilience of its community, where architecture adapts not only to environmental constraints but also to social and political shifts. The kampung’s self-organisation is a reflection of residents’ determination to maintain their space amidst the city’s rapid growth. Its informal governance systems enable collective decision-making and resource distribution, further supporting the community’s ability to adapt and thrive in an uncertain urban landscape (Suhartini & Jones, 2019).
Conclusion
Kampung Lebak Siliwangi in Bandung and Kampung Marlina in Jakarta both exemplify self-organisation and resilience, only with differently tuned practical strategies. While Lebak Siliwangi suggests incremental, community-led development through architectural changes in people’s houses gradually over time, Kampung Marlina responds to the danger of displacement by becoming an example of political activism and cooperation with NGOs to gain protections and improve infrastructure. Those two kampungs both demonstrate resilience, but in different ways: incremental growth in Lebak Siliwangi, but activism in
Marlina.
Critical insights into the processes of self-organisation within informal urbanism can be gained from studying Indonesia’s kampungs, which demonstrate how communities change and adapt in response to the shortcomings of official planning systems. The takeaways from Indonesia’s kampungs underscore how crucial it is to acknowledge the function of informality within the larger urban context. The adaptive tactics observed in kampungs provide important examples for incorporating self-organisation into more inclusive urban planning practices, as growing urbanisation continues to pose challenges to cities worldwide.
Understanding how formal and informal processes interact can help urban planners and architects design more sustainable, equitable, and resilient cities.
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