Man, culture and environments: an anthropological approach to determining the Balinese urban design unit

Urban design projects aim at achieving better environments in the sense that they are supportive of the culture of the inhabitants. Careful consideration of sociocultural aspects of a space is a precursor to approaching this goal. The existence of traditional settlements (i.e. desa adat) as a spatiocultural unit in a Balinese setting has never been accommodated in the contemporary projects of urban spatial design. In this respect, the opportunity to achieve supportive environments has certainly become remote. This paper aims to explore the existence of the desa adat as a Balinese cultural institution, and argues for its utilization as a pivotal unit in an urban design framework.