Betawi residents are the indigenous residents of Jakarta. Jakarta, long before known as the port and the trade city, is a city where various nations gather and contribute their culture. No wonder the Betawi culture is the blend of the Arabic, Chinese and Portuguese culture since the Jayakarta era.

DKI Jakarta residents are the heterogeneous people. The external influence gives a role in forming the custom, art and culture, and even the architecture of the Betawi house. Architecture is one of the cultural product of a community related strongly to the situation and the environment of the community. Unlike the other traditional house architectures in Indonesia, the Betawi traditional architecture welcomes the external influence. The external influence is clearly seen in the indoor decoration, especially for the structure system and shape and its detail.

There are four types of the Betawi traditional houses, they are: warehouse-type house, bapang-type house, kebaya-type house and joglo-type house. The warehouse and the bapang-type houses are the simple and plain square shapes, and the kebaya-type house possesses some pairs of roof and when it is seen from the side it will look like the pleated kebaya (Indonesian traditional woman's blouse usually worn with a sarong). The joglo-type house has a high roof with the blunt shape on the top, resembling to the Javanese traditional joglo roof.

Even though the modern architecture are the most-like model now, the Betawi original traditional houses are still available and they are located at the cultural preserve, in Condet. Those historical houses are protected under the Pemda DKI Regulation as the Cultural Conservation Area.