Eco Architecture as One of Design Research in Indonesia
Abstract
Indonesia as an archipelago has thousands of islands, with five biggest islands; Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya. The increase of population in the urban area influences the number of the building, which consequently effects the building coverage. By its conditions, the changing of land use is happened; the decrease of forest to agriculture area, agriculture to non-agriculture i.e. residential area grows too fast.
Indonesian forest as part of the forest of South East Asia has important function in making stable the global climate. Forest burnt, exploration with large scale, and other damages of tropical rain forest influences the global climate.
Architecture and urban design have some problems in the tropical area especially Indonesia. The use of natural building materials i.e. timber for building construction by large scale causes the decrease of the forest. In addition, the use of asphalt for road construction causes the decrease of the water catchment area. The urban water conservation would be disturbed. Nowadays we have a big question; what kind of architecture is suitable for solving the problems? Even in Java Island, the changing of land use has to serious problems. The people need solution for solving the problems.
Eco architecture is one of the ways for solving the problems. In the urban area, the use of urban forest is necessary to be applied. Road construction needs the sustainable materials. Housing and other facilities need sustainable technology. Some research topics maybe described are: sustainable architecture and urban design, sustainable landscape architecture, eco architecture for design of the building, sustainable materials for the building construction, using the recycled materials for the building elements, and energy conservation as a building design concept.
Eco Architecture is suitable as one of Design Research in Indonesia, which is hoped to solve the problems.
