jailcd2015050: Green Space as Stress Reduction for Urban Life Case Study: Menteng Park, Jakarta

Abstract

The urbanization gives effects to the cities that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Living in city has both benefits and risks. Urban living gives life improvement yet mental health problems such as mood and anxiety disorders. According to Sperling’s Best Places’s study, the factors associated causing stress are such as suicide, divorce, crime, unemployment and the commute time length. Jakarta as the captital city of Indonesia is the biggest city in the country. By 2010, 8,524,152 people are living in Jakarta. As the effects of it, traffic congestion is becoming the major complaint and the main frustation by private commuters. In order to cope out of this situation, urban citizens need to do self-nurturing activities. Urban citizens can do these activities in green spaces. Menteng Park, as the green space in central of Jakarta, is able to accommodate these activities by its facilities in order to reduce urban citizens’ stressor. The various facilities in Menteng Park are the sport field, kids’ playground, sitting area, fountain, open grass area, pedestrian path, parking lot, and glass houses. The most facilities used by urban citizens to reduce their stress are sport field, kids’ playground and sitting area. These facilities are successful to reduce stress because of its design. Its design provides natural and man-made features surrounding these facilities. So, urban citizens are comfortable doing their activities there. Besides that, by dividing these facilities into several zones, Menteng Park make urban people feel calm, relax and fit after do their activities there.