When the whole neighborhood becomes home: Domestic interiors of an urban Kampung

The idea of home conveys senses of comfort, belonging, and identity that are manifested within the domestic interior. The idea of home challenges the boundaries of the domestic interior beyond the physical materiality of interior objects and spaces in the house. This is particularly relevant to residential neighborhoods characterized by strong social and cultural ties that could potentially alter the meaning of boundaries in domestic space. The idea of the domestic interior as a private domain may be shifted through the emergence of a collective interior when the inhabitants identify themselves collectively with the space of the neighborhood. This chapter reveals the interiority of an urban neighborhood in a descriptive account of the everyday activities in an urban kampung neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia. We intend to demonstrate the spatial practices that transform the whole neighborhood into a large, collective domestic interior. Traversing the neighborhood as if moving from "room" to "room" in an urban setting, we identify the aspects of spatial practice that are important to understanding the urban domestic interior.