Reality of compact development in a developing country: focusing on perceived quality of life in Jakarta, Indonesia

Recent urban planning tends to encourage higher density assuming that density would increase urban quality of life (UQoL) and sustainability. However, in the developing world, numerous primate cities are already highly densified. For example, Jakarta's density is over 1,500 people/ha. The population grew from 6.5 million in 1980 to 10 million in 2015. Jakarta's urban area also expanded to neighbouring jurisdictions including Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi and became a metropolitan area with 23 million people. Although Jakarta is dense, it is inefficient, causing Jakarta to encourage more compact development to improve quality of life (QoL) and sustainability from 2005. Yet, the relationship between compactness and QoL has remained unquestioned. This study aimed to investigate the perceived QoL of citizens living in three types of neighbourhood – high density and high mixed-use (HH), high density and low mixed-use (HL), and low density and high mixed-use (LH). This study finds that residents in LH find QoL to be higher compared with other types of residents. It also reveals that mixed use plays a more important role in improving residents’ QoL than does density. In addition, social cohesion and inter-personal relationships are more likely to occur in LH. High density tends to lead to lower QoL. This study calls for revisiting our beliefs in high density and more in-depth studies on the relationship between urban form and QoL.