Kampung Kali

Abstract

Like many other coastal cities, Semarang is facing many interconnected water-related issues that are exacerbated by climate change and rapid urbanization. Riverside kampungs, as the product of unregulated urbanization, are usually blamed for the water pollution and are regarded as the social outcast and burden to the society. Removing the riverside kampungs has been a common practice in Indonesian cities to deal with the problem of water pollution. Massive infrastructure such as polders, sea dykes and river normalization are implemented to attempt to resolve the urgent and frequent water issues, while these measures fail to address the root causes of frequent flooding, clean freshwater scarcity and land subsidence in Semarang. To mitigate the water-related issues and improve the inhabitants’ living qualities in riverside kampungs, this project aims at creating a culturally productive landscape by regenerating the ecosystem services of the urban riverine landscape with interventions that provide economic incentives for the inhabitants to sustain and maintain the design. It attempts to argue that riverside kampungs should in fact be integrated as part of the urban ecosystem by creating landscape patterns that can be translated and implemented in the local context, so as to achieve ecological goals while meeting physical, economic and societal needs.