SEBAT

Project idea

71,4% Indonesian men are smokers, ranking the country first in the world for male smoking prevalence. While the health risks of smoking are well-documented, the practice has become deeply embedded in the social fabric, making it more than just a habit—it is, in many ways, a cultural norm. While the prevailing approach has been to advocate for smoking cessation, expecting a complete behavioral shift may be unrealistic in the near term given the cultural context.

Rather than focusing solely on continuous anti-smoking campaigns, the idea is to establish designated smoking areas that not only minimize the impact on surrounding environments but also leverage smoking's potential as a catalyst for interaction.

Project description

The base of a community are interaction which in a nutshell is communication. Giving the previous context in Indonesia there are 2 main activities that could stimulate people to communicate. Eating and smoking. While eating have their own designated space with restaurants and cafes, smoking simply don't. So the idea is simple, to create a public space that accommodate smoking activity properly smoking that eventually leads to be a community space because the prevalence of the large number of perpetrators and the fact when someone smoke they enter pranayama state , which their breathing become longer and extended and this helps our body to be relaxed, these 2 factors eventually gonna increase our sociability and lead to better communication.

In the urban context of Bandung city (Indonesia) , creating expansive green spaces on the ground is a major challenge due to high land costs and limited availability. Building a “garden” in the traditional sense is often unrealistic in densely built environments. Teras Cihampelas, a skywalk situated in the heart of Bandung, was once envisioned as a vibrant public space. However, it has fallen into disuse and transformed into a lifeless space. The goal is to revitalize the area to solve urban deforestation by creating green space vertically in a dense city area.

Technical information

A carefully selected planting palette was curated to maximize airborne contaminants absorption, with approximately 1800 new plant being planted, this prototype could approximately absorb a maximum of 831.150 kg CO2/year with the existing tree.

Utilizing passive environmental principles, the upper module employs the stack effect to reduce the concentration of airborne toxins produced by smoking. As warm, contaminated air rises, it is naturally drawn upward through the module—allowing time and space for partial filtration and dispersion before the air is released back into the public environment. This system helps reduce the concentration of pollutants, making the surrounding air cleaner and more breathable.

Integrated into the top of the module a rainwater harvesting system is integrated. It functions as a rain catcher, collecting water during rainfall and redirecting it to irrigate the vertical garden incorporated into the structure. This creates a closed-loop system that not only supports greenery in dense urban settings but also reinforces the design’s environmental responsibility through low-tech, sustainable solutions.

Addressing material waste at its source, the base module of the design utilizes recycled cigarette butts as a core material—responding directly to the overwhelming amount of cigarette waste generated annually, estimated at 824,588.4 kg per year. Rather than allowing this waste to accumulate in landfills or pollute the environment, the project proposes a small-scale circular economy where the byproduct of a prevalent social habit is transformed into a functional architectural element.

By integrating this material into the construction of seating, paving, or modular components, the design becomes more than just a space—it becomes a prototype for sustainable systems that reuse waste to support and sustain the very activity that produced it. In this way, the architecture retains, grows, and adapts, creating a feedback loop that gives environmental value to social behavior.