Informal Street Activities: Its Role in Conserving Urban Cultural Entity - Tapa blanda

As an important element of urban form, street functions as social space, commercial space, as well as channels of movement and symbolic representation of local tradition and culture. Since street comprise not only physical element but also the people who are interacting within and around them, informal street activities emerge as an integral part of street life. This characteristic is endemic to most urban streets in South-east Asia and Malioboro Street in Indonesia, is without exception. This study demonstrates the significant role of informal street activities as an integral part of urban culture and image of Malioboro Street as the main commercial-historic-cultural corridor in historical Yogyakarta. Despite these positive attributes, they are seen major obstacle in urban management due to conflicting occupation of public domain, decreasing sidewalks and cleanliness of the urban spaces. In the end, urban design solutions are formulated to conserve them as significant attributes in enhancing the richness and the complexity of the street and try to resolve the problems that arose in managing the conflicts and issues pertaining to these activities and the spaces they occupied.

Arif B. Sholihah is a lecturer of architecture at Islamic University of Indonesia. She gained her master degree in Urban Planning from Univ. of Technology Malaysia (M.Sc) and bachelor degree in Architectural Engineering from Gadjah Mada University Indonesia (B.A. Arch). Urban conservation and street culture are amongst Arif research interests.