Indonesia’s first crowd-funded self-build residential scheme, DFHousing offers a way out of the speculative-housing "trap" that leaves much of the country’s aspiring middle class struggling to own permanent housing. To achieve cost efficiency, it was built outside conventional contractual approaches - with DFORM serving as both architect and "developer", working with building foremen and general construction workers - and each co-housing member was expected to participate actively in the process. Located in the South Tangerang suburbs, it provides nine modestly scaled houses, arranged rationally according to wind and sun exposure, in a linear pattern on a 989 m2 plot. To foster a sense of trust and security in the new community, DFORM resisted the need to surround each dwelling with high fences: the remaining, narrow strip of land beyond the roadside 13-car parking area is transformed into a landscaped public place where the residents can encounter and interact with each other.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
