Why US Houses Have No Fence but Indonesian Houses Have

There are many factors why suburbs in the US are not fenced like how Jakarta houses do.

It’s mostly cultural and security concerns. In the US, houses have a front yard and back yard. Although the front yard is easily accessible by pedestrians, does not mean it’s a public place. The back yard is usually more private. People usually throw family gatherings in the back yard.

In contrast, Jakarta is a very dense city where people from all over Indonesia come for work. Currently, Jakarta has around 16k people per square km. It’s a dense shit city. No space for front yard or back yard. An average house in Jakarta only fit one to two motorcycle.

So, each place has different concerns.

In the US, people see no-fence as transparency and open-mindedness. Moreover, having an open yard like this helps the security by having the neighbors “watching” the house from far. Intruders will have a hard time going unnoticed to enter or escape the house. Conversely, houses with high walls or fence are judged as a unfriendly. They use something like video doorbells and alarm system to watch the house

In Jakarta, we have to be aware of a robber as the houses are very dense, the street in front of the house is very narrow. It’s an easy level for robbers to steal something from a house that has short to no fence. This is also the reason why the richer the person, the higher the wall/fence will be.