Surabaya Urban Corridor Development Strategy, Indonesia

The Surabaya Urban Corridor Development Program was undertaken by Hansen Partnership in collaboration with City Form Lab (Singapore University of Technology and Design) for the World Bank and City Government of Surabaya. This landmark urban design project demonstrates the power of global design collaboration and how Australian planning and design intelligence can contribute to capacity-building across Asia.

The project applies best practice transit-oriented development (TOD) and pedestrian-oriented design (POD) to deliver a major mass rapid transport (MRT) initiative in Indonesia’s second largest city. The City Government of Surabaya sought a ‘green growth’ approach, through which public transport issues can be tackled in combination with Surabaya’s broader urban development priorities.

The corridor under review was an 18km north-south strip running through central Surabaya. Hansen and City Form Lab undertook extensive fieldwork and facilitated a major urban corridor visioning workshop to prepare the strategy. The workshop was crucial in advancing the corridor concept, in line with MRT planning and the creation of sustainable urban environments. The outputs of these workshops were synthesised and formally presented to the Mayor of Surabaya by Hansen and City Form Lab in February 2014.

The resulting detailed analysis and vision delivers an urban corridor alongside a proposed north-south aligned 18km tram route passing through central Surabaya – a growing city crippled by congestion and disparate development planning. The proposed tram forms part of a major urban improvement and sustainability program initiated by the City of Surabaya. Rather than approaching the project as a blunt infrastructure initiative alone, the City of Surabaya has drawn upon international expertise to ensure that fundamental principles relating to sustainability, densification, heritage, economic development and connectivity form the basis of a more sustainable mode of infrastructure delivery.

The project does not just seek to communicate an urban design vision; rather its focus is on implementation of a series of key development, public realm and environmental enhancement projects, including affordable housing and detailed riverfront and kampong revitalisations.

In late 2014, the success of the project was recognised at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Victorian Awards, where the project was honoured with the award for urban design. In awarding the project, the judges commended Hansen’s approach:

‘…The Surabaya Urban Corridor Development Program is a landmark urban design project that achieved interchange and dissemination of Australian planning and design intelligence in the burgeoning Asian region. The project was conducted intensively in 2014 with a focus on local capacity building and the application of real ‘on the ground’ implementation practices through close engagement with Indonesian planning and design officials. The Surabaya project by Hansen Partnership and City Form Lab represents a model for the important collaborative work that Australian landscape architects will increasingly undertake in international urban development.’

Following the success of this initial project, Hansen continues to work in collaboration with City Form Lab for the World Bank and the City Government of Surabaya, with work well underway on a second phase to make this vision for Surabaya a reality.