Informal structures: vernacular spatial responses to the industrial corridor in Indonesian main rice producer regency, Karawang West Java

Abstract

Karawang Regency in West Java is one of Indonesian main rice producer regions whose economic activities growth rapidly. However, the concern of many people is that the development failed to anticipate the gap between traditional vernacular communities who conduct agricultural activities and the new industrial corridor that is formed along the southern part of Cikampek Toll-road that creates environmental and social problems in recent years. The southern industrial sites where national and international manufactured brandings are produced, imported, and distributed are more developed than the northern area. This unequal development creates a disparity inside the regency. Not only industrial estates threaten agricultural land-uses, but also flooding is now a regular disaster in Karawang and endangers the historic settlements and production of paddy-fields. Vast areas lack proper planning and human resources development. These factors race in parallel with social issues like migration and unbalance opportunities between native and newcomers from outside. Also the impact of modern lifestyle and mechanization are additional threats. The intention of this paper is to raise peoples' concern about the sustainatoility of the vernacular settlement in Karawang which Is encroached step by step by industrial estate and modern capitalist developments, 'Informal structures' is a title given to the Karawang Native spatial responses which are created from Native informal economic activities like small eateries, simple boarding houses for laborers, and motorcycles used for public transport. To investigate the phenomena of informal structures in Karawang, this paper will look at from aspects of vernacular communities, urban-architectural structures, authoritarian systems and industrial capitalism through the fourfold intersection of people, place, power and money. The absence of local community involvement in the mainstream development has denied the importance of local initiative and knowledge capacity. Vernacularity, in this case, is transformed into an informal social system that is developed through resistance of kampongs culture against urban capitalist development.