Visual and Spatial Characteristic of Informal Housing in Railway Terrace at Surabaya City, Indonesia

Abstract

Certain inhabitants in the city centre tend to choose their housing location near high employment opportunities area. They occupy the land eventough the chosen site is illegal. With priority on location and limited construction funding, the lower-middle class occupy railway terrace. They built high-density housing with little regard on visual aesthetic of their facades. This research attemps to identify visual and spatial characteristic on spesific illegal area of railway terrace and housing for lower-middle class people at Surabaya. By using typological-morphological analysis, visual and spatial reading will focus on building variety. These are represented with facades and front yard as outdoor spaces. It is discovered that visual aspect of informal housing are dependent on materials used. Moreover the development scheme based on building ownership and building use also. Meanwhile the spatial aspect shows that various front yard will emerge and correlate with railway position. The research result will conclude the most frequent classification of facades and front yard that located at the railway terrace area.