Layered Participation: A Community-Engaged Design Process For A Community Centre In Sendang Biru Village, Indonesia

Abstract

The research paper attempts to understand and examine participatory design processes that has been undertaken in Sendang Biru Village, located along the southern coast of Malang Regency in East Java for the development of a community centre that intends to support the local social life as well as the emerging tourism activities.  The project was conducted by a multi-disciplinary team that includes Architects, landscape Architects, conservation specialist and tourism experts that engaged directly with the village community. Rather than relying on conventional approaches of consultation methods the attempt in this particular project was to employee series of layer engagement that involved the local youths, children and others. Youth activities, educational sessions, discussions, participatory mapping and village works, such activities gradually enable the locals to articulate their spatial needs ,  identification of key locations and define the functional program of the community facility. The study through this project demonstrates how sustained multi-generational engagement can help in transform participatory design from a very consultative exercise into a collaborative process where the locals actively contribute towards shaping their requirements. The findings in this paper highlight the requirement of integrating social interaction and spatial mapping as various complimentary tools in participatory architectural practice.