The Degree of Privacy Requirement for Residents' Activities in the Shophouse in Yogyakarta

Abstract

Residents of shophouse in Yogyakarta combine shop keeping with domestic activities which require different degree of privacy related to social interaction. Intensive observation and in-depth interview were conducted with 30 residents to obtain their daily activities and to inquire how they feel invaded with such category of people as strangers, customers, servants/workers, friends, and family members visually and physically. The difference of privacy requirement between groups and individuals is examined by contrasting two communities in Chinese and Javanese settlements. There are selected 16 activities which are sorted out from low to high degree of privacy based on the accumulated response in each category of people. The result shows that 4 activities (serving guest, serving customers, displaying goods, and storing shop goods) require low privacy, 9 activities (waiting for customers, drying clothes, reading, lunch, washing clothes, breakfast, watching TV, dinner, and cooking meal) require moderate privacy, and 3 activities (praying, sleeping, and bathing) require high privacy. Further result shows that the physical and visual requirement are highly correlated or much higher in physical access than visual access for all activities for both groups but such activities as cooking meal, washing clothes, drying clothes, and serving guest for several residents require higher visual access.