The Cakra Selaras Wahana hub stems from a history of urban disconnection in Jakarta's Kebayoran Baru neighborhood, which was once Indonesia's first satellite city. Designed in 1948 by Indonesian urban planning pioneer Soesilo, at its central intersection the area featured a traffic circle, a distinctive feature to which architect Soejoedi responded with his celebrated Asean Secretariat building (administrative body of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ed.), now recognized as one of Indonesia's modern architectural heritage masterpieces. Rapid urbanization, however, had erased the original rotunda, leaving the Secretariat "orphaned" from an urban perspective.

The area had become a crucial junction, where two major public transportation systems-the Transjakarta BRT elevated line and the MRT subway metro line-operated within 100 meters of each other, but without any direct connection. Transjakarta's CSW stop, located 23 meters above street level, was accessible only by stairs and lacked a direct connection to the Asean MRT station. This physical disconnect reflected a broader urban challenge: how can modern cities maintain their historical identity while still meeting the demands of contemporary mobility?

When the Jakarta government announced a design call in 2019 to integrate these transportation systems, it was actually asking architects to recompose a fragmented urban landscape that had lost its identity due to uncontrolled development and the disappearance of the original traffic circle. Studio Lawang's design was based on a powerful conceptual idea: recreating the disappeared traffic circle, but elevating it and transforming it into a pedestrian access point, making its circular shape a symbol of unification.

This was not an act of nostalgia, but an act of morphological translation, that is, maintaining essential spatial qualities by reinterpreting them in entirely new functions. The elevated circular plaza operates on multiple levels, symbolic and functional. In Indonesian culture, the circular shape represents completeness and communal harmony. By reintroducing this geometry, the design creates visual and conceptual continuity with historical memory and cultural values. The traffic circle thus becomes much more than a traffic infrastructure: it is transformed into a prominent urban space and social gathering place. Additional buildings extend from the traffic circle in three different directions, accommodating functions and connections with the surrounding BRT and MRT lines.

This "spoke" configuration transforms CSW into a point of convergence rather than just an interchange. The architectural strategy responds to both practical orientation needs and the desire to symbolically represent Jakarta's expanding public transportation network. Sensitivity to context is also reflected in the architectural language: the facade is a modern reinterpretation of the Asean Secretariat, paying homage to the historic building.

Physically, the elevated circular shape creates a fluid multimodal conformation, transforming what was "adjacency without integration" into a continuous and harmonious user experience. Integration was particularly complex because of the different operational origins of the two systems: Transjakarta, active since 2004 with its network of dedicated lanes, and the MRT, a new underground rail facility opening in 2019. The project simultaneously serves as a landmark, traffic hub, public space, and shelter from the elements-a valuable spatial efficiency in the dense urban fabric of tropical Jakarta.

Temporally, the project spans different eras and scales: it connects to the urban planning legacy of the 1940s, coordinates with the construction phases of the BRT and MRT infrastructures, manages daily rush-hour flows, and anticipates future densification processes in the city. This complexity required specific but flexible design strategies capable of solving immediate problems and adapting to future changes.

Culturally, the project combines several references: the legacy of colonial planning, global standards of contemporary mobility, and local social practices. This integration emerges in both formal strategies (such as circular geometry) and operational strategies (attention to habits and needs due to climate). The construction, completed between 2020 and 2021 over an area of 4,400 square meters, required extremely precise coordination between structural, mechanical, electrical, and lighting systems while keeping transportation services running-a remarkable logistical isult that reflects the robustness of the team's systems thinking. CSW's success can be measured on several performance indicators.

After the integration between the Asean MRT station and the Transjakarta CSW stop, completed in late 2021, citizen satisfaction has increased significantly. This has become the busiest stop in "Corridor 13," connecting downtown Jakarta to the outlying areas of Tangerang and Bekasi through the integration of four BRT lines with the MRT station. Data show a 49 percent increase in passengers between 2019 and 2021, from 6,437,445 to 11,080,841. At the same time, the Jakarta MRT recorded a 186 percent increase in the number of passengers over 2021, reaching about 19 million users in 2022.

These quantitative improvements also reflect a qualitative leap in the user experience by overcoming physical and psychological barriers between the two transportation systems. Integration eliminates the previous disconnect due to stairs alone, creating accessible routes for people with disabilities, families, and travelers with luggage. Shelter from the elements and improved signage reduce stress and transfer times, making integrated public transportation more competitive with private vehicles and facilitating longer multimodal trips across the metropolitan area.

International recognition-including Japan's Good Design Award in 2021 and the IAI Jakarta Award in 2024-confirms the validity of the design approach and positions Jakarta as a leading city in integrating urban transportation in a tropical context. However, the site-specific conditions-the presence of the historic rotunda, the proximity of the protected building, the particular differences in elevation, and the symbolic value of the circular geometry-make it difficult to replicate directly elsewhere.

The design methodologies used in the design of the project are based on the following principles.

The design methodologies are transferable, but the formal solutions remain closely related to the context. Scale is also a limitation. While successfully integrating formal BRT and MRT systems, Jakarta's mobility ecosystem includes an extensive informal transportation network that remains excluded from this intervention: ride-hailing services, motorcycles, and other vehicles still operate independently. These "informal" systems are often essential for the first and last mile, especially in areas not directly served by main lines. Without integration points for motorcycle-taxi and ride-hailing services, many users continue to experience discontinuities in access to the "formal" public transportation system.

A comprehensive transformation of urban mobility therefore requires a strategy that integrates formal and informal systems. However, the success of CSW provides a solid basis for extending the integrated design approach to the entire public transportation network in Jakarta. Future interchange projects can adapt the methodologies underlying CSW-such as morphological translation of historical elements, vertical integration strategies, and cultural dialogue through architecture-while developing site-specific formal solutions. A network-scale application requires systematic thinking about the hierarchy of interchanges and their functional programming.

Each location may require different strategies depending on passenger flows, urban context and ollegated means. CSW's circular form and dialogue with historical heritage are not universally replicable, but the emphasis on creating places-not just passages-is a lesson that applies everywhere. The CSW model suggests the potential of "urban acupuncture": targeted interventions at strategic points capable of improving the overall health of the system. Extending this approach means identifying other critical nodes where integrated design can trigger positive urban transformations, helping to build a more heritage-sensitive, climate-resilient, and socially inclusive Jakarta.