Flexible architecture: Bamboo as a tool for children to play in urban kampung

Abstract

Due to the dense population and increase of development, urban kampung in Indonesia is facing a problem of limited children's play spaces. Flexible architecture with its movable principle is expected to be a solution by creating children's playing tool that is built among the dense urban kampung. Bamboo is the staple material because it is local, able to regenerate quickly, lightweight, and affordable. By using the exploratory method, this research tries to reveal the previously hidden aspects by evaluating all processes of design-build of three created children's playing tools. These playing tools can be built in the kampung after three processes of apart-and-reassemble. However, there are several questions which need to be discussed further; the right configuration between the component and the joint of the bamboo, to make apart-and-reassemble process more effective in a dense urban kampung, and also how to make bamboo's structure able to survive better under rainy seasons and surface humidity.