SPASIAL EKONOMI, KEPADATAN KOTA, DAN KETINGGIAN BANGUNAN: STUDI KASUS HONGKONG

Abstract

Tulisan ini mendiskusikan bagaimana isu ketinggian bangunan dan kepadatan wilayah
diregulasi dalam kebijakan perencanaan dan praktek-praktek terkait. Paper ini merefleksikan
tantangan yang dihadapi oleh beragam daerah, khususnya perkotaan, dalam
perkembangannya saat ini maupun di masa yang akan datang. Sementara daerah perkotaan
memiliki keterbatasan skala keruangan, mereka diharapkan memiliki kemampuan
mengakomodasi pertumbuhan populasi yang berkelanjutan, serta kompleksitas aktivitas,
seiring tahapan pembangunan. Dengan menerapkan metode penelitian hermeneutic dan
mengambil Hongkong sebagai studi kasus, penelitian ini menekankan jika pada kondisi
tertentu, konsolidasi dan perencanaan daerah berkepadatan tinggi merupakan sebuah
keharusan, jika bukan keputusan perencanaan yang paling tepat. Beranjak dari pandangan
dimana keterbatasan lahan diopsikan sebagai faktor pendorong utama, dari yang
kelihatannya sebagai pelonggaran pembatasan ketinggian bangunan di Hongkong,
artikel ini menginvestigasi faktor-faktor intrinsik yang juga memiliki peranan penentu.
Dalam mengilustrasikan argumentasinya, dikaji beragam strategi perencanaan terkait,
yang diberlakukan di Hongkong, kondisi positif dan tantangan dalam implementasinya,
termasuk permasalahan lingkungan yang muncul. Beragam kebijakan dan praktek yang
dihasilkan dari prosedur ini diharapkan akan memberlakukan keseluruhan elemenelemen
penentu diatas sebagai satu kesatuan. Hanya dengan mensinergikan mereka,
pembangunan berkelanjutan akan bisa diraih, seperti secara berulang ditekankan dalam
dokumen Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa, Burtland Report (1983).

Abstract
This article discusses how issues of density and building height are regulated within urban
planning policies and practices. It reflects challenges encountered by many cities in
their current and potentially future development. While urban areas possess limited scale
of spatial resources, they are expected to have all the capacity to accommodate the continually
growing population, as well as intensity and complexity of the existing diverse
activities, taking place in line with their development stages. By using her-meneutical
research method and taking Hongkong as a case study, this paper emphasizes that to
certain cases consolidation and a high density approach is a must, if not the most
appropriate planning decision. Moving from an opinion in which limited spatial
resources is viewed as the main motivator of the seemingly relaxed current building
height restriction in Hongkong, this paper further investigates intrinsic factors which
equally have determining roles. In illustrating its arguments, this article examines
relevant urban planning strategies that have been enforced in Hongkong, pros and cons
for their implementations, as well as arising environmental impacts the strategies have
inflicted. In measuring the appropriateness of similar strategies to other regions, such an
endeavour requires preceding analysis of socio-cultural, economic, and political circumstances
of each given case. Added to this, an idealistic conception enforcing development
as a process, which is not only accommodative to human basic, social, and
economic needs, but also to the protection of the environment and nature, demands a
highlight (Chapin 1959, Godschalk, Keiser, Chapin 1997). As is often overlooked, the
later agenda should be consciously prioritised and imbedded within any planning
approaches. The anticipated policies and practices resulted out of this procedure are
expected to treat all these concerning matters as a unity. Only by synergizing them,
sustainable development will be within our reach in the future, as are repeatedly viewed
within the United Nation’s Burtland Report (1983).