Kampongs in Jakarta are usually associated with slum areas because it is an informal part of the city that does not get any support in development from the government. What used to be an informal settlement area consisting a group of inhabitants with specific background, has merged with the urban tissue of the city and become part of the city. Since the status of the kampongs is informal, there are no basic facilities such as infrastructure, electricity, water and sanitation. Due to the development of the city, there are a lot of pressure coming to the kampongs, making it unsuitable for many inhabitants to live in, causing deterioration of the living condition. The purpose of this project is to study what kinds of aspects plays an important role in preventing the detrioration of a kampong. Therefore, a kampong which lies in the periphery of the city is chosen as a case study since this is considered to be in a good condition at the moment. However, looking at the development of Jakarta at the moment, these kampongs will face deterioration soon if there is no planning being assigned to them. Situ Babakan is one of the Betawi (native inhabitants of Jakarta) kampongs which lies on the southern periphery of Jakarta. This Situ (lake) is naturally a very potential water retention area. Situ Babakan is situated at 54-64 m above sea leve opographical condition. The total surface area of Situ Babakan is 165 ha with the land use for housing (46.73%), green area (26.19%), swamp (12.05%), and public facilities (5.1%). The kampong at this moment is a green area with low density inhabitants (17,726 inhabitants in an area of 298 ha) with 67.5% of the inhabitants are the Betawi people. The rest of the people are migrants who come to Jakarta, from Java or other islands in Indonesia. In order to prevent the kampong from deteriorating, a series of improvement strategies on the urban level which includes the aspects of infrastructure, water, green areas and buildings are introduced. Each of these aspects are developed using SWOT methode, resulting in a site-specific design proposals in the urban scale focusing on the elements that should me maintained, improved, alternate and minimize. There are also specific solutions that promotes autarkic living environment being introduced in the neighbourhood level. The design made for Situ Babakan is a Neighbourhood Centre, which provides failities for the kampong inhabitants to improve their living condition. The program of the Neighbourhood Centre resulted in different kinds of areas in which one can learn, exchange knowledge, earn money and work in the same area. It also forms the link to the existing market relating to the surrounding. The main goal of this project is to provide facilities so that the inhabitants become independant of improving their own living condition instead of waiting for help from outside, such as the common case of slum areas nowadays. The Neighbourhood Centre is designed using local materials, while taking into account the climate condition, traditional Betawi architectural values and building methods and environmental awareness. This could be seen in the open plan which promotes natural ventilation, and design decissions that allows passive cooling when the building is being used by the inhabitants (this in relation to the custom and culture of the Betawi people). At the same time, the design also integrates new methods on gaining energy through the use of solar panels, rain water purification system and light construction system.