Urban Public Space for Kids: The Comparison between Urban Kampong and Housing Neighborhood in Malang

Urban Public Space for Kids: The Comparison between Urban Kampong and Housing Neighborhood in Malang Arif Wibowo1, Fitri Nuriyatun Nisa Cholis 2, Tarranita Kusumadewi3 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Technology Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malan, Indonesia 1

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[email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected]

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ABSTRACT Public open spaces in a settlement neighborhood scale other than as a green open spaces it also functions as space to socialize. Need of open spaces mainly came from the kids as their playground, in which nowadays is not the main concern within society or within the local government. The playground plays a very important role to kids in the urban housing area when it comes to the fact that development of information and technology and urban lifestyle are directing the kids to an individual, consumptive modern life. The rapid growth of Malang city is putting aside the playground for kids because enormous growth in some housing areas within the city. This paper will try to study the playground phenomena’s that is how the development of the kids playground tends recentl tendency it’s activity with the case study in the urban kampong and the residential neighborhood in Malang city. By using observation method phenomenology, interview technique and literature study hope that it can understand the problems of kids playground in Malang city. Based on the observation, the phenomena of kids playground in urban kampong, the kids tend to use the street, alley, isle or whatever spaces left as their playgrounds because the lack of the proper playgrounds. Meanwhile on the other hand, in housing neighborhood, the function of existed playgrounds are not maximized to the most due to the lack of concerns from the local society. Eventually, the open spaces which are supposed to be playgrounds will suffer a change of function into an unmaintained public spaces which will suffer again into becoming negative spaces. st

© 2012 1 Biennale ICIAP. All rights reserved

Keywords: public spaces, kids space, kampong, housing.

1.

INTRODUCTION Public spaces is one of an important component in a built environment, because public space is a social space for society. Public space is a space that enable people from different class, ethnic, gender and age blending as one (Madanipour, 1996). Children is one part of public space user, but is there a public space which can fulfill children needs exist and already planned as a development of built environment especially in crowded Indonesian city? Children public space in this paper focused at children playground, playground as important element in urban city environment. Playground became important element as education media and as supporter of growth kids era, in spite that children is country considering kids as a nation successor generation, that character building efforts needs attention, especially in urban settlement environment. City people’s lifestyle which tends to consumptive and individualist are already affects development of children mind style, beside the kids that grow in nowadays urban environment tends directed to playing in the mall or other playing facility that far from social and environment value. On the other side, the information and technology

development are also change the play style of a kids and tends to emphasize individualistic character, beside the other negative influence that can affect children’s growth, like easy pornography access for kids, violence etc. Those phenomena indicated that kids which grow in the city spend their playtime far from nature. Like the study done by Nixon (1997) indicated that kids spends only below 15% of their playtime in the natural public space. This shows that the natural public space like playground in one settlement environment, especially in the city, needs attention. Playing is a children’s needs as a process to learn their environment, develop their creativity, their sociality with their friends and grow their sensivity (Dewiyanti,2010), so that in the playing activity, the kids can develop their cognitive skill, physic and social (Yatiman and Said, 2011). This thing shows that kids playing process have important role in the children growth stage, in the physical building and non physical character and child’s personality. This provision that shape the children’s development in the other stage of adultery. Children as future investment are expected to be a good human being that can give positive contribution. Big cities in Indonesia, like in Malang with crowd high crowd level already moved children’s playground, especially in the settlement area. The city settlement that consist of kampong settlement and residential is the place where the kids grow. The crowded urban kampong settlement condition not provide special space for kids to play. The children tends to use the remnants space and public facility like alley, aisle, river’s boundary line or the other unexpected area. Urban kampong settlement that mostly dominated by middle and low economic state, tends to ignore playground for kids sometime. The economic factor and space limitation redact the children play facility that can also reduce their needs. While in the other condition, the play ground at some of the settlement in Malang provide play space as playground, but their condition is not maintained and is not applied optimally because the lack of social attention. 2.

METHODOLOGY The methodology that used in this research is phenomenology observation for the kids activity and play style by taking sample in Kidul Dalem kampoung and in Griya Shanta residential. Moreover supported by interview technique with the kids and neighbor society respondent. 3.

PUBLIC SPACE FOR CHILDREN : CHIDREN PLAYGROUND AS PLAY SPACE According to Ali Madanipour, public space is a space that can give society easiness to access and accommodating driven, controlled and moderated public activity, also as a place that enable and let different classes, ethnic, gender and age of society blend as one (Madanipour, 1996). Public space inside of environment have important role because it served as a social space for their society. Children as a part of built environment resident needs attention in order to efforting environment that responds with children’s role. In realizing kids decent city, the kids role in built environment design purposed to (1) provides that a decision affecting his city. (2) appreciate their opinions about the city they want. (3) Participate in family life, community and social. (4) Receive basic services such as health and education. (5) to obtain fresh drinking water and have access to improved sanitation. (6) are protected from exploitation, cruelty and abuse is wrong. (7) Safe to walk in the street. (8) Meet and play with his friends. (9) Have green spaces for plants and animals. (10) Living in a pollution free environment. (11) Participate in social and cultural activities. (12) Every citizen in a balanced way to access each service, regardless of ethnicity, religion, wealth, gender and disability. Public space as playing activity (playground for kids in environment scale needed as a attempts to supporting children growth and develop stage. The important of playground for children is to cultivating friendship through interaction with other (Yatiman and Said, 2011). Public space is regulated in the laws of children’s protection no.23/2002 as a reference play space facility affordness like in the school, sport park and places to picnic. This is a mean to protect children’s right to use their spaces as their place to

rest, socialize, play, relax, and having fun. This shows children are indeed one of the most important elements, concluding that children’s playground is absoulutely necessary. During these years, caused by narrowing spaces in the cities and also reducing open public sphere, city’s society have been indirectly inclining to have their children play in the mall as new playgrounds. Normally, parents would take their children to the mall to have them enjoying the playgrounds there during the weekend, which inevitably create consumptive trait to children. Other than previous reason, another thing to take into considerations is the fact that the playground in malls are artificial, thus setting children apart to natural open space, which in turn alienates them from local environment. Socially, habituating children to play in mall’s playground will eventually reducing their awareness of their own social environment. It is a known fact that not every single child is able to play in the plaza. In order to get there, some might need to spend some resources on it, while in real playgrounds in their environment, children would be able to interact as all children in their environment are gathering together. The expansion of technology and information is also known as the changer of children’s playing pattern. In most big cities, children tend to spend their playtime at home playing video games or surfing the internet. Children spend their time playing indoor more than children would years ago. According to some research, generally children these days only spend less than 15% of their time playing outside. This fact would suggest that the pattern of playing in most children in modern cities will eventually create the characters of children as unaware of their environment, which also would affect their cognitive and motoric skill. 4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 4.1 CHILDREN SPACE IN URBAN KAMPUNG Urban kampung is one of residential places that informally evolves and develops into urban area. Generally urban kampung is densely populated without much planning and strict regulations. The highdensity population level and occupied mostly by middle-class citizens make the urban kampung has the necessary character to be called social sphere. The close relations between people within the society creates social sphere in the small alleys; interactions between classes of citizens including gender and age are blending into the society. The same thing can also be seen in the children within the same society. The fact that the children play in the same place in kampung created new spaces and also encourage the use of other elements within the kampung. Small alleys in the kampung are the perfect example; not only used as pathway into and exit the kampung, the small alleys are also potentially used by children to play games such as hide and seek, soccer, and others, which optimalize the use of the alleys. a. Children Space in Kampung Kidul Dalem Kampung Kidul Dalem, one of the urban kampung in the heart of Malang Town is one of the urban kampung that has quite high population density level. Municipalities of Kidul Dalem is physically divided by Brantas River, making the delta river occupied with high density level. The residential that violated government rule about setting houses near the river is one fact that happened in this area. As a typical urban kampung, Kampung Kidul Dalem also suffers from the same problems that hit other urban kampungs; population density, lack of green open spaces, and also social economic problems within the society. The lack of open spaces and the absence of children playgrounds in Kidul Dalem encourage the children to use kampung’s alleys and unnoticed open spaces as their playgrounds

Source: Arif et all, 2012

Figure 1. Kids playing in kampong street, using pick up car cover.

According to observation done in Kidul Dalem, children tend to use the street as playgrounds; most of them play soccer, draw on streets surface, chasing one another, and use the street as hanging place with their peers. In some cases, children even use whatever items found as toys, such as pickup cars cover. Fenomena tersebut menunjukkan bahwa anak-anak di kampung kidul dalem tidak memiliki tempat bermain sehingga anak-anak cenderung menggunakan tempat-tempat yang bukan peruntukannya. Akibatnya aktivitas bermain anak dapat mengganggu aktivitas lain, seperti mengganggu pengendara yang sedang melintas. Selain itu juga berpotensi terjadinya kecelakaan yang dapat membahayakan keselamatan anak. Minimnya ruang bermain di kampung Kidul Dalem juga telah mengarahkan anakanak untuk menggunakan area bantaran sungai Brantas yang melintasi kampung ini. Pada waktu-waktu tertentu, seperti di musim penghujan, area bantaran sungai Brantas sangat berbahaya dan rawan terjadi kecelakaan. Beberapa waktu terakhir telah terjadi kecelalakaan yaitu seorang anak yang terseret arus sungai ketika bermain hingga merenggut nyawanya. b. Children Sapce in Kota Lama Kota Lama also suffers from the same problems that occur in Kampung Kidul Dalem. Quite densely populatied which located in the southeast of Malang City. Generally, society in the municipality of Kota Lama is economically located between middle and low level. Physically, this urban kampung appears more slum-like, indicated by messed up street planning and bad sanitation. The high density level of the population has caused the lack of open spaces, especially for the children to use. One of the phenomenons appeared in the area is the fact that children use streets and alleys as their playground, due to the fact that there is not that much of that open spaces left for them.

Source: Arif et all, 2012

Figure 2. Kids playing at less area in kampong

Fenomena yang sama dengan Kampung Kidul Dalem

juga terjadi di kawasan ini. Anak-anak

menggunakan jalan-jalan dan gang sebagai arena bermain mereka. Salah satu alasannya adalah tidak adanya lahan bermain khusus untuk mereka. Selain menggunakan jalan sebagai area bermain, anakanak juga menggunakan lahan kosong milik warga setempat. Keberadaan lahan kosong inilah yang dijadikan sebagai ruang bermain mereka dan juga menjadi ruang publik bagi warga setempat, selain jalan dan gang. Keberadaan fasilatas yang seadanya menjadikan anak-anak bermain secara natural, seperti bermain bola, memanjat pohon dan aktivitas bermain lainnya. Fenomena tersebut di satu sisi cukup baik, namun di sisi lain memerlukan sentuhan ruang bermain yang selain mewadahi aktivitas bermain juga memiliki nilai edukasi dan berdampak positif pada lingkungan. Ruang terbuka yang tidak terawat juga bisa mengarahkan anak pada kegiatan negatif. 4.2 CHILDREN SPACE IN URBAN RESIDENTIAL : Case Study Griya Santa Residential Other than kampung as a residence, residential is also becoming one of the characters of settlement in the city. Residential is a settlement that planned by private developers or government, causing them to become formal settlements, and which of the residence is generally come from middle up class. Griya Shanta is one of decent residential in Malang. Facilities given in this residence is quite complete. Located on strategic place near the business center in Soekarno-Hatta Boulevard make the residence has great value within the city. Residential consist of blocks with quite wide areas, facilitated with security posts and playgrounds in each block.

Source: Arif et all, 2012

Figure 3. One of the unmaintened park in Griya Shanta Residential

Just as common residential, generally the owner of the houses within the residential is individualistic. There aren’t many social gathering in the open spaces, as so the children living there. Children in the residential tend to spend more of their time playing indoor such as playing videogames or computer. Even more, playgrounds and parks that have been built aren’t visited often by the residence there. 4.3 CREATING PLAY SPACE BY COMMUNITY PARTISIPATORY DESIGN : Experience on the Procces of Landscape Design Studio Student Works. Keberadaan ruang bermain menjadi sudah menjadi kebutuhan dalam upaya memenuhi hak anak dan menciptakan lingkungan yang ideal bagi tumbuh kembang anak, sehingga selain menjadi ruang bermain juga menjadi wahana edukasi positif bagi anak di perkotaan. Peran masyarakat sangat dibutuhkan dalam merencanakan ruang bermain dalam lingkungan permukiman, karena masyarakat menjadi penggerak utama sebagai agent of change dalam lingkungannya. Pada perencanaan ruang bermain anak diperlukan partisipasi masyarakat baik dalam proses perencanaan, tahap perancangan hingga pasca perancangan. Metode Desain Partisipasi oleh masyarakat adalah salah satu pendekatan yang tepat untuk merencanakan ruang bermain dalam lingkungan permukiman seperti di Kampung Kidul Dalem, Kota Lama dan Perumahan Griya Santa, sebagai pengalaman studi mata kuliah Lanjutan oleh penulis. Community Design is the art of making sustainable living places that both thrive and adopt to people’s needs for shelter, livelihood, commerce, recreation and social order (B.Hall et all, 2001:3). Dalam upaya menentukan kebutuhan masyarakat metode ini cocok digunakan oleh arsitek dan penentu kebijkan (policy maker) dalam merencanakan ruang bermain anak, sebagai upaya untuk mengetahui kebutuhan masyarakat setempat secara tepat, sehingga desain yang diharapkan sesuai dengan harapan yang diinginkan oleh masyarakat. Tahap awal yang dilakukan adalah pendekatan kepada stakeholder setempat seperti RT, RW, masyarakat dan anak-anak di objek study. Proses pengamatan dan interview dilakukan untuk mengidentifikasi masalah fasilitas bermain yang dibutuhkan anak-anak di area studi. Setelah itu dilakukan tahap perancangan ruang bermain anak di studio oleh mahasiwa. Setelah tahap perancangan dilakukan maka langkah berikutnya adalah presentasi hasil rancangan kepada masyarakat dan anakanak setempat. Pada proses ini diharapkan mendapatkan respon dan masukan oleh masyarakat sebagai upaya untuk melakukan perbaikan desain. Setelah desain desain mendapatkan persetujuan oleh masyarakat, maka masuk pada tahap implementasi desain. a. Design Recommendation in Kampung Kidul Dalem

Source: Arif et all, 2012

Figure 4. Design result of playground in Kampung Kidul Dalem by Landscape studio student work

b. Design Recommendation in Kota Lama

Source: Arif et all, 2012

Figure 5. Design result of playngground in Kota Lama Dalem by Landscape studio student work

5. CONCLUSION Children is a future investment, therefore it needs attention in every aspect in their life, one of them is for built environment where the kids grows there. Children’s character built from their neighborhood in some aspect physically or non physically. It is time that settlement environment as the closest environment for kids needs play space as apositive container and play facility. Through desigh and development that can accomodated their needs, it is expected that the kids play needs aspect through the initial movement of play space in settlement environment can create positive play media. Similiary as the play space design and development, needs to considering the kids needs aspect that compatible with the kids will in their neighborhood with participative method. Everybody awareness is totally needed to realizing the settlement environment that can accomodate the kids play needs, both in the society and government. The social understanding is needed as a main motivator in one settlement environment in the design or pasca design stage as an effort to manifest its sustainability. The government role as a policy holder is also needed in order creating play space policy in every settlement environment. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This paper is one part of Advanced Landscape Studio course as one of a optional course. The big theme dispatched in this course is a “One Village, One Playground” program as studio project with advise lecturer Tarranita Kusumadewi, MT. Thank you for the support and the advice and all of landscape studio classmate that contributed in data collecting proccess

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