Transforming domestic architecture :a spatio-temporal analysis of urban dwellings in Bali

Abstract

Cultural transition is a significant phenomenon in urban dwellings in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. House values, functions, meanings, and spatial configurations are changing in parallel with the process of socio-cultural transition. Through time traditional space configurations no longer fit with the new values and lifestyles. Meanwhile, cultural transition has also occurred in low-cost housing. Many occupants are dissatisfied because traditional values of the local society are perceived as relatively unimportant by the developers. As well as cultural transition, these occupants also have to cope with physical, spatial, and social issues. Therefore, the urban Balinese who live in these houses tend to continually adapt their dwellings to meet their current situation. In a study in 2003, Sueca used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the characteristics of the occupants in urban dwellings. These included socio-economic issues, education, demographic factors and occupation, in order to see how they contribute to the housing transformation phenomenon. Thus, comparisons of these characteristics were used to discover contributory factors, motives of transformation, and the processes and effects of this phenomenon. The conclusions of his research were made available for further work and to serve as a starting point for this current study. Over ten years later, a valuable study of this phenomenon can be accomplished to identify and investigate change through time. Systematically revisiting the dwellings and households of the previous study is a way of understanding this phenomenon, through a detailed analysis of documents, household interviews and spatial surveys. Covering over ten years, this allows a focus on the socio-cultural changes over time and produces information and evidence about this phenomenon and how the dynamics of the socio-cultural life of the occupants order and articulate the process of housing transformation. It is necessary to identify and differentiate between the core elements and the peripheral elements of the socio-cultural lives of the occupants, which can disappear or be replaced by new, highly valued elements. In terms of data, previously accumulated information was integrated with more recently collected fieldwork data in 2011. In this sense, the approach emphasises the need for a time series perspective of home environments and the importance of historical data for theory development in Environmental-Behaviour Studies. This study ultimately provides an understanding of the interconnection between occupants and urban dwellings in the process of housing transformation from a spatio-temporal perspective. Dialectic processes describe an essential dynamism in the process of becoming at home in the socio-cultural lives of this specific group. The study also explores the importance of the socio-cultural lives of urban dwellers in helping to define the nature of the Balinese, in terms of their lifestyles, values, preferences, and the nature of good or better settings for them. Finally, it aims to contribute to supportive housing design and policies in Indonesia.