Upwards along the pipes

Abstract

“Upwards along the pipes” focuses on the Tamansari subdistrict in Bandung, Indonesia, in which the Cikapundung river is a central physical element, dividing the highly dense informal settlements in two. The project tries to tackle several ecological and spatial issues occuring within the site, including a large amount of (organic) waste being disposed in the river, decreasing the healthy living conditions of the site. The current situation lacks any form of decent centralised or decentralised wastewater treatment management and/ or infrastructure. Furthermore, there is a lack of public open spaces and functions within the kampungs, while the city in the future has to face an increasing population density, putting even more pressure on the city and especially these already dense kampungs. The project contains the development of a fast and easy applicable on-site wastewater treatment system which is able to directly prevent river pollution, while incrementally developing into a permanent decentralized wastewater treatment plant with an integrated public function, utilizing the potential beneficial values of recycled organic waste, in the forms of biogas and fertilizers. These output resources make environmental care economically more beneficial and appealing for local inhabitants. The integrated communal food market provides a platform for the kampung inhabitants to optimally benefit from the gained resources, by communally growing and selling food grown due to the gained fertilizers and cooked on the produced biogas from water treatment.