The Egyptians and Romans made something of a habit of it and in the last century alone more than 20 countries around the world have elected to relocate their capital city.

Indeed, Indonesia itself moved its capital from Yogyakarta to Jakarta in 1949 and has been talking on and off about moving again for the past half a century, so the recent announcement by Joko Widodo that East Kalimantan is set to be the location for the next Indonesian capital should come as no great surprise.

The reasoning behind the proposed relocation certainly has some merit. Jakarta has one of the world’s fastest growing urban populations, vastly outstripping its ability to provide the infrastructure to support its current inhabitants, whose numbers could potentially triple in the coming decade or so.

The reality is that the days of designing capitals like Neimeyer’s Brasilia or Griffin’s Canberra through a single "architectural" vision are long gone. Instead, the new capital should be planned with people at the core of the process, both in terms of stimulating as wide a conversation as possible about the vision for a new city and then putting them front and centre when it comes to the implementation of the plan.

Historically, we have seen a very top-down approach to planning, but the most successful projects often start at the bottom – involving people in the process creates something much more holistic, authentic and meaningful.

The Indonesian government has stated that the new city will be developed along Smart principles, although the definition of a Smart City varies greatly by geographic location, context and whether it is being delivered in a developing or developed nation.

Smart planning can be focused on ensuring that a city has the right basic infrastructure to support its population through sanitation, transport and jobs or in more advanced urban centres like Singapore it is an exercise that explores what improvements can be made by adding technology to existing infrastructure.

What is important is that the basics of life – access to clean air, water, energy and housing – are in place before the more technologically-focused solutions are implemented. Ultimately, Smart Cities should improve lives.

The three key themes that should define the approach to the East Kalimantan project are environment, connectivity and community, each of which will be important considerations in delivering a new capital that is liveable, economically viable and socially equitable.

The government currently owns 180,000 hectares of land in East Kalimantan, much of which was deforested long ago. Any new city must embrace the opportunity provided by nearby rainforest and look at how to extend green networks and reintroducing ecological habitats within a wider open space strategy. This will be the true essence of the government’s “City in the Forest” aspirations through creating place that responds to its natural context and conditions.

Finally, and most importantly, are communities. This refers to both integrating the communities that already exist in East Kalimantan and also creating a new city of sustainable, inclusive and healthy communities – places that reflect a modern Indonesian identity and ultimately, places where people want to live.

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for Indonesia and its government in terms of facilitating the development of an exemplar project that could act as a benchmark in planning for the country and the wider region. Moving capitals may be nothing new but now is the chance to do it better than anyone else.

One of our rainforest projects received a Gold Award at the Singapore Institute Landscape Architecture Awards. Read more: https://www.sila.org.sg/slaa