Pesantrens, notorious for their prescriptive and hierarchal education, often produce many prohibitions and restrictions that students (or santris) need to follow to achieve an allegedly successful education. At Pesantren Tebuireng in Jombang, East Java, there is a thriving neighbourhood life, where santri s may practice agency and practical reasoning, and build upon their culture sensitivity, camaraderie and teamwork, or "gotong royong"

Taking cues from Stanley Allen’s "Field Conditions" that emphasises on site specific interventions, the "school" expands into the whole village, where five pondok structures, capable of holding infrastructures like warungs, classrooms and lecture halls, are built along the main road, which then are connected by chairlifts. The intervention encourages neighbouring structures to be transformed into supporting pondoks. The pondok structures are growing, and eventually forming a linear city - a platform where santris may exercise agency and there is life-long learning among public.