President*s Design Award 2023 – TEBET ECO PARK (Design of the Year)

DESIGNER
SIURA Studio

DISCIPLINE
Landscape Design

An ageing public facility. A polluted waterway. A site for dumping waste. This is what a park in Tebet, a district of South Jakarta, was to the people who lived around it for over a decade. Today, the 7.3-hectare green area known as Tebet Eco Park not only draws in a high volume of visitors daily but also attracts fish, birds, and other wildlife.

What spurred the transformation is a revitalisation of the park that went beyond a cosmetic upgrade. An existing 714-metre-long waterway canal made of rubble and concrete was re-naturalised into a meandering river with wetlands that can better manage frequent flooding during large storms while cleaning the water. A new bridge now links the park, which is divided into two by a busy road, while rising beneath the existing mature trees to offer the experience of walking amidst the canopy. New spaces were created to bring visitors closer to nature, including a community lawn, a thematic garden, a large playground, and more.

The multi-layered design by SIURA Studio, led by Anton Siura, has refreshed the park and regenerated it into an ecological asset for the city. As one of the first landscape projects in Jakarta to employ an ecological design approach, the park has also planted a seed for more sustainable designs to grow across the city and even beyond.