Living with the waste

Abstract

Waste has always been with humans, and its amount will increase drastically, along with rapid urbanization and globalization. Improperly treated waste causes problems such as water pollution and disease, impedes living quality. Developing countries suffer more because of their hysteretic economic and social development. Landfill, as the predominant waste dealing measure, struggles to handle the current situation due to the gap between the waste amount and the land it requires. How to establish decentralized waste management should be examined to adapt to the inevitable future of living with waste. Semarang is the fifth big city in Indonesia, also the capital of Central Java Province. Its unplanned city expansion since the last century fails to equip the city with effective waste infrastructure and leaves no space for people and nature to interwave. Consequently, it creates an unhygienic and unattractive environment and undermines the living quality. This project looks at Kampung Kranggan as the test site in the light of its commercial importance, strategic location, and rich culture. The design explores how waste flows can be integrated into daily life activities and empower the locals in building their living environment. Landscape interventions help to contribute to a healthy environment and, more importantly, create social and economic impacts, meanwhile become the starting point of mindset and behavior change about waste.