Practice of space sharing in high-density Kampung Cikini

Practice of space sharing in high-density Kampung Cikini 4/5
Evawani Ellisa (Universitas Indonesia)

The first word that I remembered in Jakarta was "Kampung" and "MCK."
We have worked with the community to improve MCK Cikini. One of them was an MCK Kobak in RT14 (RT is a neighbor group of 60-100 people scale). There was a washing place around the well, and people just made a hole in the back part for defecating [15]. Originally the MCK was divided by men and women, but each has a semi-open room for bathing (M), washing clothes and dishes (C), and defecate (K). At first, when we asked to rehabilitate this MCK, our team suggested the normative idea of MCK that could give a little more privacy for those activities, but it was opposed by the community, as they said: "Safety is first, and privacy is second."
The space arrangement and the form of Kampung Cikini are complicated, crisscross by labyrinth of irregular paths. It is also located in the heart of Jakarta, adjacent to the railway station and the main road. For strangers and outsiders, Kampung Cikini is easily accessible. It was the reason why - like other dense Kampung and slums in a different part of Jakarta, Kampung Cikini has a bad reputation for drug trafficking. In this case MCK is known as an ideal spot for drug injection abuse and drug trafficking. Therefore, we discussed with the community [15] and explored a new design that makes it easy for people to see and keep an eye on the user while still secure some privacy (Bahir, Ellisa, and Widyarko, 2020) [16, 17]. MCK was originally a place for residents to interact and socialize. They chat and exchange information while washing. Many kampungs are connected along the Ciliwung River, the main river in Jakarta, and Cikini is one of them. Kampung Cikini is living environments formed around a small river of tributaries. Before the government built the MCK, there were more than 10 "helicopter" type toilets on the small river [16]. "Helicopter" is a very basic toilet where they only put a board over a stream and defecate from the board's hole. Today, one helicopter toilet remains. In this last helicopter toilet, there is a partition between the board and the gap that serves as a blindfold from the river bank. However, this toilet is surprisingly popular among the residents. One reason is that it is very practice and another reason is that they can talk to each other while doing their business.
However, we thought that it was necessary to abolish the culture of open defecation or secretion directly into the river. For that reason, we proposed to rehabilitate the new toilet on the river bank to replace this primitive one. We put proper standard squat toilets with septic tank but we tried to maintain the sense of openness of the existing helicopter toilet and keep the spaces' character that creates interaction between residents [17]. Unfortunately, the construction now has to be temporarily stopped due to the pandemic.
When you talk to the community about MCK refurbishment, you will find that MCK has unspoken rules and cultural norms expressed through everyday practice. People who do not have space in their house need to have toilets and washrooms essential to everyday life. Each family member has to negotiate daily over an area called MCK that is neither owned by a specific community nor a specific person.