Housing at the intersection of informality, politics, colonialism and architecture. A case study of Kampung Susun Kunir

The Lecture

The decade 2010s witnessed a surge of evictions across Jakarta, with the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation documenting over 400 cases between 2015 and 2018, primarily affecting kampungs or urban informal settlements. In a proactive move, the 2017 gubernatorial election marked a turning point, with thirty-one kampungs under Jaringan Rakyat Miskin Kota (JRMK/Urban Poor Network) forming a political contract with then-candidate Anies Baswedan. This contract, with its key points of eviction moratorium and kampung rebuilding, paved the way for an ambitious, if at times contentious, approach to housing recently recognized as the Gold Winner of World Habitat Awards 2024.

Among those rebuilt is Kampung Susun Kunir, a cooperative-managed replacement housing for thirty-three families evicted in 2015. Architects, working in close collaboration with Kunir residents, community organizers, and Jakarta Provincial Housing Agency for over five years, devised a long-term participatory framework called “pendampingan” that resulted in the co-design of a kampung susun (literally translated as stacked kampungs) built-in 2022. The process, however, also unearthed another dimension: given the location in the inner area of the historic Kota Tua Batavia, the required archaeological excavation compelled Kunir to contend with the site’s historicity. This series of complex assemblages works in multiple rhythms that are both synchronized and syncopated.

But how has co-design reflected such complexity in the built outcome? In what way must one recognize a place’s colonial trace vis-a-vis its political potentiality in heritage-making? And to what degree have Kunir residents sustained or transformed aspects of their livelihood in the process? 

In this lecture, Kamil Muhammad, Aryo Danusiri, and Indri Yuliani will share some insights into the making of Kampung Susun Kunir through the perspective of a coordinating architect, a researcher, and a community organizer.

The Speakers

Kamil Muhammad is the director of Jakarta-based architecture practice pppooolll and co-founder of practice-based research studio Rimpang. After obtaining his M.Arch from the University of Melbourne (2014), Kamil led the architectural effort for the cooperative housing prototype Kampung Susun Kunir (2022) in collaboration with the Jakarta Government Housing Agency. His work has been internationally awarded, such as the LafargeHolcim Award Asia Pacific (2017), the Museum for Climate Change Competition Glasgow (2020), and the Perhutana Forest Design Competition (2022). Kamil is also active as an architect-researcher with Labtek Apung (2022-ongoing) and a co-founder and advisor to Architecture Sans Frontieres-Indonesia (2016-ongoing). His recent publication is Unravelled Homes: Forced Evictions and Home Remaking in Jakarta (IJURR, 2023).

Email: kamil.muhammad@gmail.com and kamil@pppooolll.org

Aryo Danusiri is a technological anthropologist and co-founder of practice-based research studio Rimpang. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology with a Secondary Field in Critical Media Practice from Harvard University. Danusiri teaches at the University of Indonesia, where he conducts courses on Anthropological Theories, Technology and the Public, and Political Anthropology, among others. His research projects revolve around activism and its technologies that interrogate the subjectivities of conservative and progressive actors. Various international institutions have supported his projects, including the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), Fulbright, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. He is currently leading a research project on the climate crisis funded by DFAT Australia entitled “Fire Play: Understanding and Documenting Indigenous Fire Governance in Indonesia.” 

Email: aryo.danusiri@ui.ac.id

Indri Yuliyani is a Jakarta-based community organizer and the current coordinator of Kampung Susun Kunir cooperative. Yuliani is currently a co-principle investigator in a research project entitled “in/visible walls – stories from the kampungs of Batavia” on Dutch colonial architectural heritage in Indonesia sponsored by Stimulering Fonds (NL).

Email: indriega9@gmail.com