Lessons Learned from Traditional Settlement Patterns for Housing Planning in Indonesia

Recent research on traditional settlement pattern shows that traditional settlements in Indonesia are losing their values and degeneration of built form has changed the beauty of their original typologies. New settlements and housing projects are often oriented to western type of built form that may or may not fit to local situation. The quest of this paper was what kind of traditional settlement values that should be preserved to enrich current new housing development as an effort of digging out local wisdom that can contribute to new ideas of housing development/settelement in Indonesia. This study was based on descriptive analysis of several traditional settlements in Bali, Lombok and Kalimantan by evaluating their changes of settlement pattern and built form. This research found that traditional settlements uphold the harmony between bult form and the spirit (wisdom) of nature or incorporating spirit of macrocosmos into microcosmos. This paper proposes to revitalise the wise of traditional settlement pattern to enrich our future housing development with the aim at establishing Indonesian settlement values into modern living.