A group of young people from Bandung – Abhi Kurniawan, Didi Rahmadi, And Wardatut Toyyibah, known as Team Urban have started Lakuna Kota, an initiative to revive “dead” spaces in urban areas. The term “Lakuna Kota” refers to neglected or forgotten spaces within a city, which in the urban design field are known as “Lost Spaces.”
The initiative began with our concerns about urbanisation, which has a domino effect on many things, especially the growth of informal settlements. Bandung, as a large city, faces increasing urban growth. In the village of Kopo, housing dominates land use; however, residential area quality still needs improvement, with adequate facilities and public spaces. High population density and limited open space can negatively impact people’s health and quality of life. Data also shows abandoned green open spaces in Kopo, and even well-designed parks are not properly maintained, deteriorating and are rarely used. Underutilization of existing public spaces in Kopo limits children’s play areas. Many kids in the bustling neighbourhood of Kopo play in unsafe laneways and lively alleyways. Neglected public spaces also have the potential to be privatised by irresponsible parties, sometimes disturbing surrounding residents.
Image 1: The abandoned condition of the RW 07 Park (Before)
Placemaking is our primary approach to addressing this issue, supported by several other relevant approaches. Our vision is to transform Kopo’s Lost Spaces into active and safe spaces through a tactical urbanism strategy that elicits a well-maintained area, bolsters the sense of belonging between public space and communities, and promotes environmental awareness. Our tactical urbanism approach involves creating pop-up parks with removable and adaptable features, providing open spaces for various activities while ensuring low maintenance. We are also working on a long-term plan and guidance with Karang Taruna Kopo to ensure that the community continues to value the space and takes responsibility for its upkeep. By involving the primary users in the park’s design, construction, and activation, we aim to foster a strong sense of belonging. Additionally, we promote environmental awareness through activities like waste segregation and incorporate features like biopores and vertical gardens to support future urban farming initiatives in the area. Indeed, creating a sense of belonging is a lengthy process; however, we hope that our initiatives could trigger the local community to value their own spaces, especially for the RW07 Kopo Park Area.
In carrying out the implementation process, we invited youth groups of Bandung to join us on our journey to transform the public space in Kopo. We conducted the development of this space through a design charrette process, a series of collaborative design activities involving active, interactive, and engaging dialogues with communities from diverse backgrounds. We uphold participatory values as a fundamental principle that we consider crucial to be shared with the community. Furthermore, we undertake this bottom-up approach to create opportunities for discussions and incorporate ideas and perspectives from residents who directly interact with their surroundings, ensuring that the outcomes are more inclusive for all. As newcomers, we serve as facilitators aiming to harmonise the various ideas of those with a deeper understanding of the area’s context stemming from their longer-term residency. The Design Charrette is then carried out with children and residents around the area earmarked for development. Going beyond this, we engage in a series of mentoring sessions with experts and conduct several workshops to integrate the outcomes of the design charrette into a unified design concept for the park. Socialisation efforts are also made, and even a local construction builder is selected to involve more local residents in the park’s development process.
Image 2 and 3: Participatory Design Charrette Process with adults (left) and with children (right)
In placemaking, it’s essential to work together with various urban groups, both public and private, to ensure that our projects in RW 07 Park, Kopo, Bandung can succeed smoothly. Our intervention may be apparent physically since we have modified the physical aspects in the abandoned area of RW 07 Park, Kopo, Bandung. However, the fundamental principles we want to spread are not about creating physical space but about altering the community’s thinking to let people understand that their voices are worth fighting for in urban development. By involving the local community, which is the primary user of the space, we aim to create a strong connection between them and the area. This connection is vital to transforming a space into a place people care about. Through projects like the RW 07 Kopo Park, we emphasise the importance of community participation in designing public spaces. This involvement helps foster a sense of ownership. It ensures the area’s sustainability, preventing it from neglect or misuse.
Image 4: Condition of the park after revitalised using the placemaking & tactical urbanism principles (After)
By involving children as the primary users of the space, as well as adult community members around the location in the park design ideation process, the community begins to realise that the existence of a public space in the middle of the informal settlement is a valuable asset that needs to be preserved. We engaged NGOs with similar viewpoints, such as Architecture Sans Frontieres Indonesia, Kolektif Agora, and Karasa.bdg, to facilitate knowledge transfer processes. Many dialogues took place among us, the local community, and collaborators, allowing perspectives on appreciating their public space to start forming. Karang Taruna, as the local youth group, also stood alongside us during the development process, making their involvement in every stage, from ideation to implementation, a consistent practice. The transformation of the space became more evident after the local community’s design ideas were realised. The features they needed were well facilitated, leading to the space being used more actively again, based on principles of flexibility, temporariness, and multifunctionality.
Image 5: Lakuna Kota with local government and communities during the park launching event
Image documentation by Lakuna Kota Team
