OPTIMIZING VISUAL QUALITY OF FAÇADE IN SOCIAL HOUSING
Astri. A. SARI1, SHIRLEYANA2 and Fitria A. FELICIANI3
ABSTRACT:
Social housing is one concept which has been introduced as a way to cope with problems of informal settlements. The presence of informal settlements with its dirty-chaotic image often seen as a problem that ruins the image of a city. Relocating people in informal settlements to social housing is hoped to help the government to improve quality of the environment as well as to provide a decent living place for the poor. Unfortunately, the utilization of social housings often causes new problems to the city.
The poor façade design of the social housing complex worsened by the living habit of the occupants made the social housing looks dirty and untidy. Again, this condition will give bad impact to the image of the environment surrounding. The social housing complex of Penjaringan Sari Surabaya was selected as the case study to map the common visual quality problems that occured. Case studies of several buildings with the similar problem were also conducted to obtain precedents that can be implemented as a solution.
KEYWORDS: social housing, façade, visual quality 1. INTRODUCTION
The rapid population growth and urbanization in the city resulted in the increasing need for land for housing. The price of land continues increasing caused inability of poor people to obtain formal housing. These problems resulted on the emergence of informal settlements in the city. Informal settlements are still considered as one of the biggest problems in the city. The low quality of the environment there creates new problems such as health and criminality. Besides, informal settlements are identical with the impression of dirty and chaotic so that their presence will worsen the face of the city (Budiharjo, 1994).
Social housing is one concept which has been introduced as a way to cope with problems of informal settlements. Based on Law No. 16 year 1985, social housing is an attempt to rejuvenate the slums to become a healthy environment as well as encouraging the development of high density settlements.
In the form of vertical housing, social housing is able to provide residential units with a relatively large amount in a limited area. This vertical form will also save the land for green space and public space as a means of community activities. By improving the quality of living environment, it is expected that quality of life of the poor citizen will be improved. For the city, the social housing can be an alternative in the rejuvenation of the environment that gives a positive effect on the visual area (Yosohusodo, 1991).
1 Civil Engineering Department, State University of Malang, Indonesia
Along with the relocation of residents from the informal settlement to social housing, problems in slum areas can be overcome. The former location of the informal settlement can be utilized according to its land use. The poor citizen can get a decent living place with an affordable price. However, not all problems were overcomed. After being utilized for several years, nearly all of social housing in Indonesia are experiencing the same problem. Social housings complex became mess, and dirty.
Occupant's laundries were seen hanging in various places as if it is decorating the facade of the building. Some parts of the building had been damaged left without treatment. Social housing which was originally built to overcome the untidiness in slum areas finally creates untidiness in its own
district
.Such conditions could not be allowed to continue. The visual quality of the facade of the building complex will affect the image of the district. Furthermore, good or bad image of the district will indirectly influence the image of the city as a whole.
Through a case study on social housing of Penjaringan Sari 1 (PS1) and Penjaringan Sari 2 (PS2) in Surabaya, this paper intends to examine why the visual aspect often become a problem which overlooked on the social housing in Indonesia. Furthermore, the study of literature on architectural objects with nearly similar problems was done to find the right strategy to overcome these problems.
2. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL HOUSING AND ITS PROBLEMS IN INDONESIA
According to Law No. 16 of 1985 on social housing, the goals of social housing in Indonesia are: 1) meet the needs of formal and decent housing for the people, especially for those within middle or low income; 2) improve the usability of land in urban areas with an emphasize to the preservation of natural resources and to create a harmonious, and balanced environment.
Of these objectives, it was concluded that the social housings are built for middle low income society.
It means that social housings should have a price which is affordable for them. Social housing is made to provide them a decent housing. This means that although it is built with the limited budget, social housing still has to be able to meet the needs of a comfortable space for activities for the residents. In addition, social housing should have a decent quality of the environment for physical and mental health of its inhabitants. Social housing can improve land use and create harmonious and balanced environment. This means that social housing must have a good quality of environment with the harmonious and beautiful visual aspects so that it can increase the use value of the land.
In general, social housing in Indonesia was built with the principles of economy and affordability.
Within these limitations, the main priority of its development is often only on the provision of housing units with a minimum size that considered as the adequate space to live and do daily activities.
Provision of public facilities is given as a means of public activities for the community. Visual quality of facade regarded as tertiary needs. This is the reason why the aspects of the design are not the main concern in the planning of social housing. This condition is getting worse after some years utilization.
Social building complex buildings will eventually look dirty and untidy because of the irresponsible behavior of the occupants.
The problem of untidiness in the social housing complex is due to the bad management of the social housing and the irresponsible behavior of the occupants (Hendaryono, 2010). One of the reasons is because the government often only pays attention to aspects of the provision of facilities alone. The aspect of community assistance to maintain sustainability facilities is often not considered. The social housing's occupants are not empowered at almost every stage of the planning process. In fact, active participation of the building user often leads to the high sense of belonging and thus make them become responsible in maintaining the building.
3. CASE STUDY: THE SOCIAL HOUSING OF PENJARINGAN SARI 1 AND 2 SURABAYA The complex of social housing of Penjaringan Sari 1 and Penjaringan Sari 2 which is used as the case study in this paper is one of the oldest social housings in Surabaya. This social housing complex is located at Jl. Penjaringan Sari Timur, Rungkut, Surabaya. The building complex consists of 6 blocks (9 mass of buildings each with 4 floors).
Figure 1. Social housing of Penjaringan Sari; site plan, exterior view, and interior Source: google map (2015) and authors (2015)
The complex of social housing Penjaringan Sari 1 is the first complex building constructed. This complex consists of three typical buildings namely Block A, B, and C. Each block consists of 4 floors.
This building complex does not provide private bathroom and kitchen in every dwelling unit. This is considered as a big problem for the occupants. In this complex, one bathroom is provided for every two dwelling unit. While for cooking area, they are provided with a shared kitchen in every floor.
The social housing of Penjaringan Sari 2 consists of three blocks (Block D, E, F). In this complex, one block consists of two building masses. So this complex has six building masses in total. Private bathroom and kitchen are already provided. In this complex, the area in the first floor is used for the public activity purposes, for example as a mushalla and market. This social housing complex is already equipped with some public facilities like a wide parking area, badminton court, park, and also a library for kids.
In principle, the main problem is caused by the needs of people for the private drying space which cannot be accommodated in this social housing complex. From the interview with the occupants, it can be concluded that a private space to dry up laundry is the needs of the occupants especially for those who are living in the upper floor. They prefer the private space in each of their units rather than the public one for the reason of accessibility and safety.
Figure 2. The façade of Penjaringan Sari with the laundry which is visible from the outside Source: authors (2015)
The typical building of Penjaringan Sari's social housing is designed with double loaded corridor type.
In the double loaded corridor system, one corridor serves the dwelling units from its two sides (Mascai, 1980). This type of building relies on the presence of opening in one side to maintain the air circulation inside the dwelling unit, which in this case is the open balcony. The fresh air enter the interior of the dwelling unit through the open balcony on one side and go out through the small opening on the other side. This two openings work together as a cross ventilation system. From this, it can be concluded that the presence open balcony in every dwelling unit is a must to keep the optimum temperature inside.
Figure 3. Double loaded corridor system Source: Mascai (1980)
The open balcony of all time had been utilized as the drying space by the occupants. The laundries which are exposed from outside of the building make the image of the facade look dirty and untidy.
Yet, the balcony cannot be closed permanently because its presence is needed to maintain the comfortable atmosphere inside the building. The other challenge in designing social building is that the design solution must be easily implemented and affordable.
Figure 4. The corridor and messy balcony at Penjaringan Sari Source: Authors (2015)
4. SOME FAÇADE DESIGN AS PRECEDENTS
Building façade gives orientation and represents functions of the building. The façade of the building does not only cover and represent functions of the building itself, but also aesthetic aspects and the needs of users. To examine the success of building design, one of the tools is by evaluating building performance from its façade or enclosure after a certain period of time. Performance here refers to the level of service provided by building materials, component or system, in relation to an intended, or expected, threshold or quality (Kesik, 2014).
The building façade or enclosure has some functions: aesthetics, safety from environmental impacts (shading, opening, ventilation), and security (Kesik, 2014). Social housings (Rumah susun) in
most cases, it does not pay attention to the need of users, especially living culture. As a result, the space utilization does not match with the intended or proposed function and this affect the building facades. One example is the habit of people using manual washing instead of using washing and drying machines. This affected the need of drying space for housing. In many social housing, drying space is mostly exposed on the building façade. One of the solutions is retrofitting building façade, by altering or adding certain features. This can be done by installing building features which are movable or flexible and non movable or fixed building elements. Some of the design precedents below may be applied for the social housing in tropical area.
4.1 NON MOVABLE - FIXED FAÇADE
Once example of fixed designed façade is low rise housing located in Salou, Tarragona, Spanyol (Girones, T., 2014). The four levels apartment buildings contain two blocks with ten units on each floor. Each block occupies an area of 15x52 meters. The activities in the housing unit consist of: entry, kitchen, dining, living, separated with bedrooms, bathrooms and washing area. The proposed particular with the terrace, as part of the façade which extends the space of the house, provides shadows and transparencies suggesting some passive systems of climatic control. Materials chosen in the building - built with simple, economic and low-maintenance materials and a careful disposition and execution.
The low rise housing points out concept of porosity and interaction with the environment. The project proposed intermediary spaces, transition, linkages to establish relationship considering architecture as close as possible to user’s reality. The walkway is designed as a transition element, as open or porous space (balconies with railings and trellis) to give continuity. Here the greeneries are made possible to refresh spaces and give shades to housing users.
Figure 5. Low rise housing in Salou, Tarragona Source: Jose Hevia Photographs (archdaily.com) 4.2 MOVABLE/FLEXIBLE FAÇADE
Movable features in the façade give flexibility for its users to control impact of the environments. One example of flexible façade can be seen in low rise housing located in Barcelona, Spanyol (Mateo, 2014). The building is located in the neighbors who protected themselves from the exterior with thick walls and balconies. The architect intended to give a more light and flexible look, by working with lightweight elements. The design finally brought the façade as interior layer: glass and stainless steel, and another exterior layer: wood that can be opened or closed according to needs. The intention is to protect building users from noise and inquisitive eyes, as a filter between inside and outside.
Figure 6. Low rise housing in Barcelona, Spain Source: Adria Goula Photographs (2014)
The residential building called Rue des Suisses located Paris, France is another example of movable building façade features. Rue des Suisses is a good example of recent projects in Paris that focus on rebuilding the typical perimeter blocks to improve interior of the block since it is located in narro w plot. The 3 stories flat with 7 stories height, has undulating facades facing both the street and the interior garden, as a results from curve rolling wooden blinds. The curved facade, which is seen at the end of a long narrow street, makes an easy transition between existing buildings, which has the same screened surface. Thus it emphasizes the system of metal shutters covering windows continuously (Archi Team, 2014).
Figure 7. Residential Building Rue des Suisses, France Source: Archi Team (2014)
The movable vernacular façade can be taken the example from Blooming Bamboo House designed by H&P Architects, located in the Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam (H&P Architects, 2013). This house is a model for low cost house due to the frequent disaster occurrence in the country namely storm, flood, sweeping floods, landslides, and drought. The usage of the local material-bamboo with modular construction is simply assembled with bolting, binding, hanging, and placing. The façade uses simple movable bamboo construction.
Figure 4. Blooming Bamboo Home, Vietnam
5. DISCUSSION: SOLUTION TO OPTIMIZE THE VISUAL QUALITY OF SOCIAL HOUSING FAÇADE
Of the few several studies conducted, it is proposed that the best solution for the problems occured in the Penjaringan Sari social housing is to install an adjustable screen system on the balcony. This adjustable screen can be opened and closed as needed. The screen can be closed if there is a drying activity there. The opening in the screen is used as ventilation which will let the air flow to the dwelling unit. One of the materials suggested is bamboo. Bamboo is a kind of material which can be easily found in tropical country like Indonesia. Besides, bamboo is relatively easy to be installed and maintained. One of important thing is that bamboo has the image characteristic of tropical building.
Design of the screen can be made as well to increase the aesthetic quality of the building.
Common problems that occurred in Indonesia are facility maintenance. The irresponsible attitude of the occupants often made them neglect the bad condition of facilities in their neighborhood. Solution suggested for this problem is to empower the people from the planning until the implementation process of the social housing. By empowering them, their sense of belonging will increase. This will lead them to be more responsible to the environment.
6. CONCLUSION
In Indonesia, using the manual washing instead of a washing machine is still a common phenomenon.
Unfortunately, the need of drying space is often neglected in the planning of a residential unit. As a result, the residents often use veranda, fence, railing, and balcony as a drying space. This condition leads to the worsen image of the residential building or the social housing complex. Therefore, in Indonesia, the availability of a drying space must be considered in the design.
Façade is the first aspect of a building that will be appreciated by people. Therefore, considering the aesthetical aspect of façade in designing a building is a must. The visual quality of a building will affect the image of district and further the image of a district will affect the image of the city.
In social housing complex, occupants are the main actor that responsible to the building and facility maintenance. Because of this, empowering occupants in every step in the process of creating social housing complex is a must. The high sense of belonging will lead to the responsible behavior to the environment.
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