Supporting Sustainable Communities Through Participatory Planning of the Covid-19 Isolation Unit in Railway Settlement

Dupak Magersari is one of the informal railway settlements in Surabaya. During the Covid-19 pandemic, affected residents in this area tended to be vulnerable to virus transmission, especially because of the physical condition of housing that does not have space for self-quarantine; therefore, an isolation unit in the community's public space was needed. To keep the design results in line with the needs of the community, a participatory planning approach is applied to support a sustainable community during the pandemic. This study wants to evaluate the stages of participatory planning in designing isolation units and changes made by the community one year after the isolation unit was maintained by the community. Several tools and techniques are used for a participatory approach in designing isolation units in railway settlements such as focus group discussions, direct observation, brainstorming, and setting priorities for isolation unit designs. Through the design results, modular isolation units can be a solution for fast and flexible construction. And it can be concluded that the criteria for the modular isolation units are: (1) can be built in a short time (2) uses materials that are durable and easy to sanitize (3) flexible and adaptive for various contexts. The flexibility and adaptability of the isolation unit come as a result of the participatory planning process to accommodate user needs during and after Covid-19 pandemic.