Staff of Information, Social and Cultural Affairs of Indonesian Embassy in Brussels, Ance Maylany, stated here on Saturday that Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini was a speaker at the Lecture on Cities: The Urban Laboratory of Surabaya, the Kampung Experience, which was held at the Center of Fine Arts of Brussels.
Rismaharini explained a presentation on the contribution of traditional villages to Surabaya`s development as it has become the center of economic growth in the city. Expert of City Planning and Settlement, Professor Johan Silas, from Institute of Technology of Sepuluh November of Indonesia, described the village as a modern and neat settlement and not a slum area.
The valuable lesson discussed during the event was the way in which Surabaya activated the informal leadership of a settlement, through village management units, to manage the environment.
Belgian architects considered the existence of village management units as a unique phenomenon because the units are not found in Belgium or any other European country.
In Belgium, there is a challenge to foster a commonality in a settlement, which is built with a sense of mutual cooperation among its people.
Participants who attended the meeting were interested in understanding the efforts to continue to maintain cooperation between the people in Surabaya.
Rismaharini emphasized that mutual help was highly relevant and a residential characteristic of Surabaya and an important part of the establishment and sustainability of the settlements.
The villages in Surabaya have become a unique lesson for Belgian architects.
Rismaharani, who is an architect from the university, and Silas shared their experiences on the development of Surabaya city by preserving the original identity of the city`s settlements and enhancing their function with modern public facilities.
Surabaya has a command center, which is a helpline for all its residents. It has 372 parks, as public areas in every sub-district of the city, which can be accessed by people and also children with visual impairment to know the type of plants in the areas.
The city government has built an area for street vendors to organize trading activities as well as learning centers for languages, math, information technology, and other subjects.
Surabaya has been transformed from being a traditional city into a smart city with the latest public facilities for its citizens, but it still accommodates the city`s history and traditional characters.
The village management has become a valuable input for the development of urban planning in Brussels and Belgium overall. It was conveyed by Head of Department of Architectural Sciences of Catholic Louvain University (LOCI), Christine Fountaine, during a conversation at an informal meeting with Rismaharini during the festival.
Reported by Zeynita Gibbons
(T.M052/A/KR-BSR/B003)
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
