Rumah Gerbong

Along with rapid urban development in Indonesia, urban population growth is progressively increased. It has an impact on the needs of facilities supporting the urban activities for its citizens, one of which is residence. The consequences of meeting these needs compel the government and housing developers to provide a residential plot system. This plot system is addressed with the concept of growing house, that both the owner and the occupants have an opportunity to develop their own house. The concept of a growing house (rumah tumbuh) or multistep development house become a breath of fresh air of a home for couples or families in urban areas, in addressing the basic needs of the housing or residence.

Rumah Gerbong is one example of well-recorded growing houses in the development of urban society, in its social, environmental, and economic status. The term of Rumah Gerbong (Gerbong = railway coach) is adopted from the final typology of the extended building. Just as the typical growing house, Rumah Gerbong also undergo various kinds of evolution, in this case there are 2 evolved things alongside in the growing house. First is evolution of form in physical, aesthetics and function; the second is evolution of social, economic and environmental status, of which this point greatly influences physical evolution.

The embryo of Rumah Gerbong began in 2000 with the land area of 90 sqm and building area of 36 sqm located in Bintaro, a development area by one of the area developer in Indonesia. As for young and new family in an underdevelopment environment, homeowner purchases house for shelter, with mostly inadequate capacity for couples, with their hardly considerable needs and desires.