Wellness: in between top-down and bottom-up approach

The government considers the river as a risk and therefore opts to close the river with high walls or prefer to move all the settlements that are adjacent to the river. But this solution is unsuccessful since it’s never easy to move all the housing away from the rivers and it will be ineffective if the rivers remain polluted and choked with rubbish. On the other hand, the residents along the riverbank adapt to these conditions. What is really surprising is while people who live far from the river tend to see the river as a dirty place and threat of flooding, people living near it tend to see the rivers as a habitat for living. The re-adaption is the pilot project to reconnect community, culture, and nature.

Embeddedness: Re-adaption means improving the existing vernacular

Local housing is very humble and removed from the modern world. It’s a vernacular treasure that we always neglect. The people create a facility for their activities inside the river from a very reusable and rich material – bamboo. They already have their own flexibility space programming, and they already declare their way of living. The idea of the project is to revamp the existing vernacular structure, embedding improved features that meet sanitary standards. We are designing the natural filtration system for clean water supply. The existing architecture symbolism the attachment of them as an integral part of the river ecosystem.

Advocacy: Hygiene is an important aspect for community health

Hygiene is an important standard for everyone, including people living near the river. The sustainable principle implies to advocate a greater understanding of the importance of hygiene, without separating them with their genuine behavior and culture. The proposal includes catfish breeding and the water hyacinth box to neutralize the toxins in the river. This project is intended to revamp the river communities in the Jakarta metropolis, cultivating the mindset that seeing the river as the center of various living activities. We hope that someday the river will be the source of inspiration and delicacy, not the emblem of disastrous floods and diseases. It starts with small and measured scales, focusing on the value of participation to enhance the efficacy and communication among stakeholders.