THE PAST IN THE PRESENT ARCHITECTURE IN INDONESIA

KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE

THE PAST IN THE PRESENT ARCHITECTURE IN INDONESIA

Edited by Peter J.M. Nas

KITLV Press Leiden 2007

Published, in cooperation with NAi Publishers Rotterdam, by: KITLV Press Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies P.O. Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden website: www.kitlv.nl e-mail: kitlvpress@kitlv.nl KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) ISBN 90 6718 296 6

Contents
6 Preface Aaron Betsky Introduction Peter J.M. Nas

PART 1

PART 2

VARIETY IN INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE ESSAYS

Edited by Peter J.M. Nas

97 Colonial Architecture in Indonesia References and Developments Cor Passchier 113 Tradition and Modernity in the Netherlands East Indies Martien de Vletter 123 Is There Really Nothing We Can Do about that Awful Mirror? Correspondence between Javanese ruler Mangkunegoro VII (1916-1944), architect Th. Karsten and archaeologist W.F. Stutterheim Madelon Djajadiningrat 131 The Afterlife of the Empire Style Indische Architectuur and Art Deco Abidin Kusno 147 Feeling at Home, Dealing with the Past Indonesian and Colonial Architecture in the Netherlands Peter J.M. Nas and Maaike Boersma

MODERNITY IN THE TROPICS CATALOGUE

Compiled by Martien de Vletter

17

Modern Indonesian Architecture Transplantation, Adaptation, Accommodation and Hybridization Johannes Widodo

163 Introduction to the Catalogue 165 Office Premises 195 Villas and Housing 231 Churches 245 Schools 259 Hotels and Shops

25 The Past in the Present The Place and Role of Indonesian Vernacular Architectural Traditions and Building Styles of the Past in the Present Jan J.J.M. Wuisman 45 The Changing Contour of Mosques Kees van Dijk 67 The Chinese Diasporas Urban Morphology and Architecture in Indonesia Johannes Widodo 73 Seeking the Spirit of the Age Chinese Architecture in Indonesia Today Pratiwo 85 Beyond Traditional Balinese Architecture Hybrid Past and Contemporary Architectural Formation of Penglipuran Village Amanda Achmadi

276 Index 280 Contributors 284 Illustration credits 286 Colophon

AARON BETSKY

Preface

Aaron Betsky

The contributions of the Netherlands Architecture Institute are of necessity part of a colonial project. Dutch architecture as a conscious way of building did not enter the Indonesian scene until the nineteenth century, which is also when our collections begin. This publication however, tells more stories than only the colonial one, though we have to admit that this colonial period has been of great influence, also on the thinking of Chinese, Hindu, Muslim or the Indonesian vernacular tradition. It is difficult to look colonial architecture in the face. For all its beauty, one always has the sense that it is the imposition of an alien form on a site that had little power to resist its construction. For all the ways in which good architects transformed the shapes with which they arrived in an alien and subjugated land into structures that were more appropriate to climate and geography, to local materials and ways of building, and to local culture and styles, the resulting buildings always remained as much, if not more representative of the country in which these architects were trained. Yet we have also come to realize more and more that there is no such thing as a monolithic vernacular tradition. There is no authentic way of building that this architecture replaced. About the only true vernacular building would be a shelter built out of

the material on the site, like a lean-to or an igloo, and even then techniques imported from other places often mark what we think of as a natural design. In the case of Dutch architecture in Indonesia (and vice versa), we now realize that most of what we think of as the Dutch canon is in fact a collection of importations from Germany, France and even farther afield, while Indonesian architecture is a similar collection of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western elements. It is exactly the mixture, transformation, and adaptation of such importations that gives any architecture its power. Nor is the issue of power exclusive to colonial work: architecture is always the built imposition of the political, economic and social status quo, as it is the holders of power and protectors of the system who have the means to build something more than a lean-to and seek to fix their power in place through architecture. Looking at architecture can in fact allow us, if we look closely enough, to understand the nature of those power relations and perhaps to even change them through architecture. If one can then face Dutch colonial architecture in Indonesia with as few prejudices as possible, its achievements are remarkable. This is true especially in light of the fact that it was a relatively short-lived phenomenon that had its heyday during a period of

PREFACE

only a few decades. What is particularly of interest to me in looking at this work is the loosening up of organizational forms in response to climate and use patterns, which appears to have brought out a kind of latent Frank Lloyd Wright tendency in Dutch architecture and allowed it to express itself in freer configurations. Similarly, the white, streamlined forms of downtown Bandung are like what Dutch architects dreamed of building after the First World War, but could not in their restricted environment. To Dutch architects, as well as Indonesian architects trained in the Netherlands, our India was indeed the romantic, oriental other place of fantasy and freedom. It was where they could realize and impose their visions. This is true even on a town-planning level, where Dutch designers were able to map out freer and more siteresponsive patterns than they could realize at home. So the function of this book is not just to document and discuss particular aspects of the history of Indonesian architecture, which of necessity must note the presence of Dutch architects there and Indonesian elements in the Netherlands, but to see what happens when the by its nature idealizing tendencies of architects confront a situation in which they have a however morally questionable freedom to create forms of which they could only dream in their native

territory. These drawings, models and other documents evoke those fantasies perhaps even more than the remains of what was actually built in Indonesia. They show us architecture dreaming of making a new world that was to be rational, open and clear in its structure. It is an architecture where details bring the landscape into the human-made world, and in which the architects dreamed of using technology in practice or image to transform that landscape into something productive and radically new. The Indonesian influence on Dutch architecture, meanwhile, brought out the dreamlike qualities of architecture itself, turning houses and even public buildings into small fragments of an imagined and perhaps remembered Garden of Eden sheltering in the cold climate of the Netherlands. The NAI offers these images from its collection, through this book and the exhibition, as contributions to the debate as to the relevancy or absurdity, the good and the evil, of those visions. We also hope that the beauty of these artefacts themselves can be enjoyed through these means. Finally, we hope that the debates generated by these activities will help us understand how this architecture can be preserved or reused. I, for one, believe that these old dreams still have a great deal of power to show us, in both countries, the ability and necessity of architecture to

AARON BETSKY

understand its place and to transform that site into a better, more open and more beautiful space. I would like to thank Professor Peter Nas for setting up the symposium of which the essay part of this book is the result and for editing all the essays, the Teeuw Fonds for starting the whole project and Chief Curator Martien de Vletter for her indefatigable labours in setting up the exhibition and the catalogue part of this publication. Aaron Betsky Former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute

INTRODUCTION

Introduction
Peter J.M. Nas

The concepts Indonesian architecture and architecture in Indonesia are both somewhat awed. Architecture in Indonesia is extremely multifaceted and includes inuences from many important cultures, ranging from India, China and the Middle East to the countries of the West. Its certainly fair to question whether or not a real Indonesian architecture exists, even with regard to the countrys vernacular architecture, which is highly diversied from an ethnic perspective. In fact, the search for the creation with some little success of an authentic Indonesian architecture has long been a topic of discussion among architects in Indonesia. Importantly, this architecture is not conned to the territory of the Indonesian state but has migrated along with various Indonesian ethnic groups, such as the Javanese and the Moluccans to other parts of the world, especially to the Netherlands and most likely to the Caribbean, although there is no certainty of the latter as yet. This collection of essays on architecture in the context of Indonesia is intended to present a picture of the diversity of contemporary Indonesian architecture, while also acknowledging that such a presentation cannot be achieved in a perceptive and fruitful way without taking history into account. It is the result of a workshop held in Leiden and Rotterdam, the

Netherlands, from 12 to 14 December 2005. The meetings were sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), the Professor Teeuw Fund, the Research School CNWS and the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS). Among other things, the meetings served as preparation for an exhibition planned for January 2007 at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam and scheduled to travel to Jakarta in mid-2007. The theme of this exhibition is colonial architecture (also called mutual Indonesian-Dutch or Indische architecture). With this book, we hope to offer the public a general introduction to Indonesian architecture and to provide visitors to the exhibition with an intelligible description of the architectural context of the Indische architecture shown. In order to serve this double purpose the book consists of two parts. Part one consists of a series of essays on different Indonesian architectural traditions and part two presents pictures and drawings on Indische architecture from the collection of the NAI. What, then, are these main architectural traditions present in Indonesia? We have distinguished modern, traditional or vernacular, Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, and colonial or Indische architecture. Besides these, Indonesian architectural inuences in the Netherlands

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PETER J.M. NAS

should not be overlooked. With these traditions and inuences in mind, we planned a book that would be as compact and practical as possible and that would feature seven essays. The eld and its scholars proved to be difcult to manage, however, and soon the original seven chapters were considered too few to do justice to the thematic complexities and the existing approaches to research on the subject. The end result includes four chapters on colonial architecture, two on Chinese and one on the remaining types of architecture: a total of twelve chapters. An overview of the history of Indonesian architecture is the most appropriate background for the topics discussed in this book. Johannes Widodo (Modern Indonesian Architecture) presents a very elaborate synopsis of his views on modern and modernization in architecture. He distinguishes ve phases, namely the periods of pre-modern (10,000 BCE-1500 CE), proto-modern (1500-1600), early-modern (1600-1800), recent-modern (1800-1940) and present-modern architecture (1940-present). The description and labelling of these historical periods show that modernization has been a permanent characteristic of architecture in Indonesia, either by way of endogenous transformations within particular traditions or by way of external inuences that have dominated the Indonesian archipelago during various periods of its history. The processes set out at the beginning of Wididos essay are transplantation, adaptation, accommodation and hybridization. Later he adds adjustment and assimilation. These concepts constitute a rather loose

and sometimes overlapping range of terms indicating the variety of endogenous and exogenous underlying processes that lead to the dynamics of architectural materializations. If modern can be conceptualized in such an iterative manner for different historical periods, the approach must be equally valid for tradition. This is why, in his dealings with traditional or vernacular architecture, Jan Wuisman has also pointed out the great variety of forms that appear in this materialization of architecture, which is described not only in its ethnic diversity and dynamics, but also in its historical variability, ranging from the genuine expression of local cosmological views to deterioration and disappearance or, in some cases, to maintenance and renewal, as well as to the (re)invention of tradition in the form of modern traditional architectural expressions, particularly in cities such as Padang and Banda Aceh. The central feature of Islamic architecture is the mosque. Led by Kees van Dijk, we follow the historical development of the mosque as exemplied in various characteristics such as location, size, layout, building style, colour scheme, upper storey, roof, veranda, domes, and minarets. The nature of mosques appears to be related to many factors. Among these, van Dijk lists population (number of believers), technology, nancial considerations, architectural fashion, popular taste, religious orientation, political considerations and state policy. He emphasizes that in a period of Islamic revival the changing function of the mosque should also be considered: the mosque is becoming more and more of a centre of missionary work and social activities.

INTRODUCTION

11

Turning to Chinese architecture, Widodo (The Chinese Diasporas Urban Morphology and Architecture in Indonesia) points out an additional factor which has to be taken into account, namely the distinction between the coastal towns, generally settled by Chinese from Southern China, and the mining towns in Kalimantan, Bangka and Bilitung, for example inhabited by the Hakka from the mountainous regions of Southern China. Originally, the coastal settlement was related to the conceptual model of the immigrants boat, which functioned as a basic pattern for the town. The cosmological-geometric conception of the boat was reproduced in the spatial conguration of the core settlement with a basic axis consisting of a Mazu temple and two masts at one end, which faced the harbour at the other end. The Hakka settlement is located around a temple in which mountain gods and the god of war are venerated. It has a radio-concentric, three-pronged axis pattern with guardhouses at each town entrance. The towns often had a dualistic character, with a native area and a foreign area, whose populations mingled in the marketplace. In the course of time, settlement patterns were transformed and layered by the intrusion of various new inuences. The basic dwelling is grounded on the Southern Chinese courtyard plan. It is a exible, modular type of building whose courtyard symbolically functions as the axis mundi: the place where heaven and earth meet. Chinese vernacular architecture was heavily adapted to local conditions and forms of architecture. By adopting and blending with local architectural forms,

Chinese architecture became integrated into a native architectural vocabulary that was marked by a great deal of variety. This is aptly illustrated by Pratiwo, who captures the spirit of the Chinese built environment not only by discussing it in the contexts of areas of origin and developments in history, but also by including the local variations in Java and Kalimantan and by taking account of the political conditions of the Chinese population group in Indonesia in general. Clearly emerging from this analysis is the inadequacy of the stereotypical Chinese house in present-day Indonesia. Chinese architecture does not consist of a gable roof with a swallows tail and cat-crawling at the end of the ridge. Moreover, Chinese architecture after the New Order period has taken on a new lease of life, exemplied by thematic architecture representing the past in the present in new ways. Besides completely new non-Chinese forms, it also includes explicit Chinese forms built in concrete. Pratiwos rejection of the stereotyping of Chinese architecture shares strong overtones with Amanda Achmadis plea for the recognition of the diversity of Hindu architecture in Bali. In this case, too, a pristine architecture is assumed composed of the characteristic villages, temples, split gates, and mudwalled compounds and contrasted with all sorts of modern degenerations of the ideal in the form of new building types, materials and techniques. In an article on Denpasar,1 it was shown that the reality of the spatial division of house, desa and town in Denpasar deviates to a certain extent from the main cultural

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PETER J.M. NAS

principles dividing space into two, three and four units. These are the opposition between upstream (kaja) and downstream (kelod), determining the layout of the house and the site of the house temple; the formation of three temples shaping the threefold division of the desa and the town; and the holy crossroads carving up the town into four parts for specic urban uses. But, notwithstanding these variations, the principles have not only been widely known but also generally applied, albeit in a exible and practical way. In addition to this, and exemplied by Penglipuran, Amanda Achmadi claims that in this Balinese village the core of architectural tradition is made up by the creative invention of diverse architectural images and facets . . . through which a new subject position of Penglipuran is asserted and claimed. She emphasizes an interpretation of architectural tradition that recognizes the role of architecture as a multifaceted and elusive eld of representation one that continues to accommodate an appropriation of identity of one community, sometimes to assert and other times to conceal the communitys position within Balis ever changing sociopolitical circumstance. In contrast to Chinese and Hindu Balinese architectural styles, which are still strongly supported by substantial segments of the population, colonial architecture was based mainly on the formerly dominant groups of Dutch and other Westerners who left Indonesia in the middle of the twentieth century. It is only by means of the concept of mutual or Indische architecture, propagated as a substitute for the term

colonial architecture, that the relationship with the Dutch and their responsibility towards this type of architecture at present is expressed and maintained. The concept of mutual architecture is not unproblematic, however, as its core of communality is quite skewed. In the present Indonesian situation, colonial architecture is viewed as the often deteriorating material expression of the former colonial power and recollections of a dark period of subjugation. Cor Passchier presents an overview of this type of architecture with emphasis on its historical formation in the early period, from 1619 onwards, including the British interregnum, and on its continuation into the nineteenth-century era of public works and into that part of the twentieth century when individual architects played an increasingly prominent role in the creation of the corpus of colonial architecture. Passchier discusses various types of colonial constructions, varying from fortications and other types of military architecture to public buildings, including government buildings, private mansions and several remarkable dwellings. A prominent debate in the colonial period concerned the creation of new architectural manifestations inspired by traditional vernacular Indonesian motifs, materials and spatial congurations, as contrasted with purely traditional, purely modern and sometimes trendy forms of design. This debate on Indonesian inspiration and the Indonesian character of architecture is elaborately presented by Martien de Vletter, who makes ample use of works displayed at the 2007 exhibition in the NAI for illustration. The creative use of

INTRODUCTION

13

traditional Indonesian motifs was also prominent in late-colonial debates on the furnishing and decoration of the palace. Madelon Djajadiningrat reports on these discussions, which involved Javanese ruler Mangkunegoro VII and Dutch architect Thomas Karsten, as well as Dutch archaeologist Wim Stutterheim. Her essay is based on the research she did into the personal correspondence of this ruler. Abidin Kusno focuses on a particular form of early twentieth-century colonial architecture, namely three styles that have left indelible traces on present-day Indonesian architecture: Empire, Indische architecture and Nieuwe Bouwen. He is aware that the imitation, quotation and appropriation of this legacy changes its original meaning in the present and raises the question: How do contemporary architects use or come to terms with this part of the colonial legacy? Kusno concludes that the colonial architectural vocabulary is still a valuable source of creativity and that it constitutes a real reection of the colonial legacy, albeit by the suppression of its colonial connotations. Fragments of the three aforementioned styles of architecture have been utilized in projects representing contractions in the colonial history of Indonesia. The use of these styles is very suitable in constituting the idea of Indonesia, as they are not related to one particular culture, and for this reason the modern architecture of Indonesia does not eschew these colonial styles but confronts them by means of appropriation. The colonial legacy is accepted with a mix of gratitude and irony for use in this post-colonial

time. It constitutes Indonesian history but, as Kusno correctly emphasizes, is also subject to contemporary conditions related to power. The colonial past not only plays a role in Indonesia but has also become part and parcel of present-day Dutch architecture in a broad sense. This theme is explored by Peter Nas and Maaike Boersma, who are the rst to have listed and studied the main forms of Indonesian and colonial architecture in the Netherlands. Their discussion includes examples of Minangkabau, Batak and colonial-style houses; Indische wards and street names; faade decorations; statues; monuments; and descriptions of Indonesian life as portrayed in Indonesian literature. Different segments of the population from ordinary Dutch people to former Indonesians and Indo-Europeans have appropriated Indonesian and colonial architecture in various ways. Feelings of power and pride, shame and honour, forgetting and longing dominate the changing archiscape of Indonesian and colonial artefacts in the Netherlands. Neglect and decay, renaming and renovation, fantasy and creation all play a role in this reshaping of the past through preparations for the future.

Peter J.M. Nas, The Image of Denpasar: About Urban Symbolism between Tradition and Tourism, in: Peter J.M. Nas (ed.), Issues in Urban Development: Case Studies from Indonesia (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1995), 164192.

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PART 1

VARIETY IN INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE ESSAYS

Edited by Peter J.M. Nas

Johannes Widodo Toko Merah,

Batavia, exterior and interior

Johannes Widodo Puhsarang Church, Johannes Widodo Colonial house with veranda in

by Henry Maclaine Pont, 1936

Batavia, faade and isometric drawing

Johannes Widodo Chinese-Dutch style plantation house

in Tangerang, faade and isometric drawing

Johannes Widodo BOW mosque in Labuhan, Banten

Johannes Widodo Villa Isola, Band-

ung, by C.P.W. Schoemakers, 1932

Johannes Widodo Hygienic building types

Johannes Widodo Aga Khan award-winning project Kali Code, Yogyakarta,

by Y.B. Mangunwijaya, 1983-1987

Johannes Widodo GANEFO stadium, Jakarta, by Russian architects, 1958

Johannes Widodo Sonobudoyo Museum, Yogyakarta,

by Thomas Karsten, 1935

MODERN INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE

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MODERN INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE

Transplantation, Adaptation, Accommodation and Hybridization

Johannes Widodo

Introduction Asia is a vast continent with a wealth of architectural expressions and an amazing mixture of cultures and lifestyles, where the ancient and the modern, as well as the Asian and the non-Asian, have mingled and merged for centuries. Indonesia, because of its location and openness as an archipelagic country, has long been a place for exchange and for the cross-breeding of various cultures and civilizations. Modern generally means up to date, trendy and new; from the present or recent times. It is a term first recorded in the sixteenth century, as a contrast to the word ancient or old-fashioned. Essentially, it refers to the departure from old traditions1 and to the creation of something new through inventions, innovations and transformations suited to contemporary needs and demands. The process of change, as seen from the structuralist perspective, is a layering of different cultural influxes into the vernacular culture through a continuous evolution of transplantation, adaptation, accommodation and fusion. Such change is manifested in the large variety and hybridity of architectural styles and forms throughout historical periods. Architecture and urban forms are, at the same time, the physical or material manifestations of beliefs, socioeconomic and political conditions, the arts and culture. Asian modernism is best viewed as process rather than product. Modern architecture in Asia has not evolved in a vacuum; local factors, both natural and cultural, play a very important role in the process of becoming modern, which involves the aforementioned aspects of transplantation, adaptation, accommodation and fusion or hybridization. The myriad forms of Asian architecture are the result of this process. This chapter looks at modern architecture from an angle unlike that of the universal, ahistorical, non-contextual definition of modern architecture, in an attempt to offer a more realistic and grounded approach towards Asian modernity and modern architecture by analysing the process of modernization rather than the product. Pre-Modern Architectural Developments During the Late Prehistoric period (roughly from 10,000 BCE to 200 CE), the small tribal groups that were formed in different parts of Nusantara 2 were based on animism and ancestral-worship cults. Under tribal leadership they elaborated

The word tradition is understood as handing over values and practices from one generation to the next, without or with small changes. Within tradition, old values, practices, patterns and forms are preserved and continued. Composed of the Sanskrit words nusa (islands) and antara (between), Nusantara refers to the Indonesian archipelago, which is located between two continents, two oceans and two great civilizations, China and India.

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JOHANNES WIDODO

cults and rituals, domesticated crops and animals, developed irrigation systems and started long-distance trading. Besides ceremonial bronze axes and drums, stone bracelets and beads, cave paintings, wooden tools and stone sculptures, people of this period produced stone graves, terraced megalithic sites, an early saddle-roof typology, timber building construction and architecture adapted to climate. This period saw the emergence of vernacular building and settlement traditions.3 Since then, the vernacular 4 architectural tradition in Indonesia has been handed down from generation to generation. Trading links between India and China that developed in the Proto-Historic period (200-600 CE) influenced the emergence of a class division between nobility and commoners, especially in ports of call along trading routes in the archipelago. The earliest kingdom appeared in Java (Tarumanagara), where the oldest Sanskrit writings and royal edicts written in the Pallava script have been found. The earliest Buddha images in bronze from Sulawesi and East Java and the earliest Vishnu images from West Java are indicators of the rise of Hinduism and Buddhism in these areas, which subsequently gave rise to early permanent architecture in stone and brick. The process of fusion between Hinduism and Buddhism continued into the Early Classic period (600-900 CE), during which international maritime trade intensified, giving rise to class divisions and specializations in urban communities. Gold and silver coins were commonly used for the exchange that took place in periodic local markets. The translation of Hindu and Buddhist teachings into Old Javanese is a sign of dissemination and of the indigenization of foreign culture into the local context. Two prominent Buddhist Srivijaya (Sumatra) and Hindu Mataram (Java) kingdoms built monumental stone sculptures and large stone temples and shrines, mainly in Java (in places such as Gedong Songo, Borobudur and Prambanan). Early Chinese immigrants arrived during the Middle Classic period (900-1300 CE), and Chinese currency started to circulate in the archipelago. The power centres shifted to eastern Java (Kadiri) and central Sumatra (Malayu), and the institutionalization of state bureaucracy and the military can be traced to the construction of an extensive transportation and irrigation infrastructure and other networks, especially in Java. Brick temples appeared in Sumatra (Padang Lawas, Muara Takus, Muara Jambi).

During the Late Classic period (1300-1500 CE), port cities along the northern coast of Java and the eastern coast of Sumatra grew in prosperity, thanks to the expansion of international trading networks that included the Java Sea and the Melaka Straits. Chinese currency became the main medium of exchange, and Chinese-diaspora communities played a strategic role in the commercial and service sectors of cosmopolitan coastal Nusantara. The Majapahit kingdom in eastern Java rose to become a great maritime power and managed to place Nusantara under its political and cultural rule. Metal equipment and pottery were mass-produced, terracotta figurines replaced stone and bronze statues, a paper-making industry appeared, and new styles of stone and brick temples were constructed on the mountain slopes in East Java and Bali. Proto-Modern Period: Contexts for Modernization The emergence of cosmopolitan cities and urban culture; the rise of commercial, service, and industrial sectors; and the development of artistic and stylistic innovations in design in previous periods were perfect preconditions for the modernization process, which would accelerate in the following periods. The Proto-Modern period (1500-1600 CE) saw urbanization and specialization in modern economic relations develop in terms of both quantity and complexity, as Islamic traders from southern China, India, Arabia and Persia arrived in the cosmopolitan port cities of Nusantara. International trade, the spread of Islam and the rapid growth of port cities were strongly propagated by the great Ming dynasty, whose Admiral Zheng He sailed from China to Southeast Asia and across the Indian Ocean to the eastern coast of Africa in the first half of the fifteenth century. 5 Early Islamic power centres arose in Java (Demak), southern Sumatra (Palembang), the Malay Peninsula (Melaka), Sulawesi (Goa) and different parts of Nusantara. Various aspects of Islamic culture were adapted and adopted, mixed and hybridized with pre-existing Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese elements, as manifested in the architecture of mosques, tomb complexes and palace gardens from this period, as well as in hybrid Islamic literature and decorative arts in various parts of the archipelago. A good typological example of Proto-Modern architecture is the adaptive planning and design of the great mosque of Demak. Based on the cosmological principles of the Hindu mandala, the plan of this mosque complex has three essential

3 4

John Miksic (ed.), Indonesian Heritage, Vol. 1 Ancient History (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 1996), 10-11. The term vernacular originates from the Latin word vernaculus and means domestic or indigenous; from verna: a slave born in his masters house, or a native.

Johannes Widodo, The Boat and the City: Chinese Diaspora and the Architecture of Southeast Asian Coastal Cities (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2004), 31-19.

MODERN INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE

19

components: a clear, concentric pattern of space, which radiates from four structural columns that support the main roof (soko-guru) and features a main access point that faces east; tri-level zones that run in an east-west direction, from the main gate ( gapura/gopuram ) to the veranda hall ( pendapa/ mandappa ) to the main hall; and a three-tiered roof with a crown on top. The westward orientation is not directed exactly towards Mecca ( qiblat). Contributing to the construction of the earliest mosque were Chinese shipbuilders from Semarang, a Chinese Hanafite Muslim community with close ties to Admiral Zheng He. Its thought that at least one of the main columns 6 was constructed according to methods used in Chinese shipbuilding. Early Modern Period: The Transplantation of European Typology The Early Modern period (1600-1800 CE) was marked by the arrival of European (Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and British) traders to Nusantara. An increase in the colonial hegemony and domination of Europe was matched, however, by the rapid growth of the Chinese role as middleman in the commercial, service, and manufacturing sectors. In the early seventeenth century, Europes four-seasons architectural typology and design language were transplanted directly into the tropical landscape. The earliest structures exemplifying this typology were trading posts, military forts and fortified towns. Motivating the planning and design of these architectural elements was a survivalist instinct that placed a higher priority on security than on comfort. The VOC (Dutch East India Company) strived to strengthen its foothold in important port cities by building forts near the coastline or the estuary of a river. The expansion of the VOC, which continued to the end of the nineteenth century, pushed the transplantation of this climatically incompatible building typology into other parts of the archipelago, including the hinterlands, generating health problems and uncomfortable living conditions. The four-seasons building typology was transplanted (or forced) into tropical regions with high temperatures, high levels of humidity and rainfall, and long hours of glaring sunlight. Features such as a flat faade without a veranda, large windows, thick brick walls, small eaves, and few openings for ventilation were unable to provide enough shade, cross ventilation, and protection against tropical storms and wet ground.

Glaring sunlight pierced the interior through large glass windows, high humidity levels could not be reduced because of a lack of cross ventilation, and the air inside these structures remained above the human comfort level. Inhabitants dressed in European-style clothing, which was suitable for temperate regions but inappropriate for life in a hot and humid tropical climate. Living conditions within this kind of building, not to mention garments, were uncomfortable, hot, humid and unhealthy.

Toko Merah, Batavia, exterior and interior

On the other hand, forcing these alien colonial artifices into indigenous regions enabled the VOC to exercise immediate control over local communities. There was no time to consider and to refine the architectural style. Basic building techniques and methods were taken directly from the European vocabulary out of practical necessity. Architectural styles and materials unfamiliar to the locals were quite conspicuous amid the vernacular morphology of such settlements. As time went on, the superimposing European morphology expanded progressively, eventually dominating and eradicating the entire urban fabric. The uncomfortable conditions gradually improved, however, once security ceased to be the main priority for survival. Gradually, certain technical and design-related improvements were applied to the construction of military structures, as well as to dwellings, offices, churches and warehouses. Recent Modern Period: Climatic Adaptation and Cultural Accommodation The Recent Modern period stretched from the early nineteenth century, soon after the VOC went bankrupt, to the 1940s, which ended the years of the great depression that preceded the Second World War. During this fourteen-decades-long episode of Dutch colonization, the Netherlands East Indies underwent drastic transformations, among which an economic system of forced cultivation, the implementation of the Agrarian Law (after 1870), a number of liberalization and decentraliza-

According to popular belief, this column was constructed by Sunan Kalijaga, an Islamic missionary to Java (Wali Songo), using pieces of wood held together by iron plates.

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tion policies (after 1901), and the emergence of early nationalist movements (1912 to the 1930s) that eventually led to the struggle for political independence. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, eighteenth-century survivalist architecture was gradually replaced by architecture adapted to the environment. Uncomfortable living conditions were the main reason for this change. For the sake of physical and environmental comfort, architects began using local building materials and learning and reproducing vernacular architectural languages. The most significant architectural adaptations appeared in the design of the roof and the faade, as seen in the architecture of plantation houses and country houses belonging to Dutch and wealthy Chinese settlers. Here, a much larger pyramid roof was able to absorb a greater amount of heat and to prevent it from being transmitted into the interior space. Better ventilation was the result of gaps between roof tiles and openings separating the ceiling from the tops of the walls. A more steeply pitched roof directed torrents of tropical rain straight down to the ground. Eaves became wider, forming large verandas that protected occupants from the glare of the sun and wind-driven rain, while providing them with much-needed, cool shadows on all sides of the building. The high ceiling of the earlier European typology was retained, a decision that kept the interior larger and cooler than a lowceilinged space. Openings (doors and windows) were larger and louvred, to ensure effective cross ventilation.

tion process has generated additional changes and transformations that further fuel the discourse on modernization. Environmental adaptation continued through a process of cultural accommodation. Europeans embraced local lifestyles, local social norms, local cultural traditions and local spatial concepts. The large veranda, derived from the traditional Javanese pendopo and reinterpreted, became the most important part of the house. The space that was originally the central pavilion, an area located between the public zone and private zone, became an extended veranda, which served as a common, multipurpose meeting place for activities of a semi-public or semi-private nature. Most of the familys daily activities such as sitting, dining and entertaining guests took place on the large veranda. Bedrooms for family members were located inside the main building, and servants rooms, along with kitchen and storage spaces, were found in outbuildings around the main house.

Colonial house with veranda in Batavia, faade and isometric drawing

Chinese-Dutch style plantation house in Tangerang, faade and isometric drawing

Mixed marriages involving Europeans, Chinese citizens, people of other nationalities and natives produced the Indische culture: a mixture of Dutch and local cultures expressed in lifestyle, fashion, food, art, craft and architecture. Many large houses built from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries became multiracial, multicultural dwellings that helped create culturally hybrid communities. Hybridization and the Maturity of Indonesian Architecture Hybridization as a result of climatic adaptation and cultural assimilation marked a new stage of architectural maturity, when experimentation and creation of new architectural forms were generated, prompted by cultural assimilation and socioethical agendas. Modern architectural innovation was stepped up in 1814, when the Department of Public Works was established as part of the Department of Finance during a brief period of British administration (1811-1816). In 1832 the Department of Public

These adaptations made living conditions inside the building much more tolerable and climatically comfortable. The architectural style of the buildings was more connected to and in harmony with the vernacular typology. The locals, therefore, started copying and adopting this new style for their houses and buildings, including the usage of new building materials and the application of new building techniques. The adapta-

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Works became a branch of the Department of Waterways and Civil Engineering (non-military functions) and employed military engineers ( Genie ) from the early colonial period. In 1855 an independent Directorate of Public Works (BOW, Burgerlijke Openbare Werken) was formed which trained civilian architects. In 1921 the BOW became part of the Department of Traffic and Waterways and was changed into the Building Service Office ( Landsgebouwendienst). 7 These public architects or civil architects developed the so-called BOW style in the cities (housing for civil servants, government offices, post and telegraph offices, markets, lighthouses, cemeteries, villas, hospitals and so forth). These buildings, eclectic in style namely the Orientalist style or Indo-Imperialist style combined modern design idioms with classic architectural influences (from China, Japan, India, Persia and Europe) and vernacular elements.

Architects ( Locale Belangen Architects) was used to select the Local Architects working for municipality governments. The central government developed blueprints for hygienic building types, which municipalities then used to guide design and implementation in their respective cities, especially for the middle and upper classes of the community. 9 Architects were employed to develop the blueprints, not only taking into account the hygienic and utilitarian aspects of the design, but also incorporating aesthetic and conceptual qualities. The Mix-Levels Housing Plan and Tropical Garden City concept were adopted, combining low-, middle- and upperlevel dwelling units in an integrated plan within the urban structure well-adapted to the tropical natural environment. New typologies of modern dwelling were introduced, such as the single-detached unit, double-unit, quadruple-unit, sixrowed unit, and so forth.

BOW mosque in Labuhan, Banten

The Decentralization Act ( Decentralisatiewet ) was promulgated in 1903, followed by the proclamation of the Local Council Ordinance ( Locale Raadenordonantie ) in 1905, which was soon followed by the official declaration of autonomous cities the reason for the building boom enjoyed by Dutch architects in the Netherlands East Indies.8 In the meantime, the Society for Building Sciences ( Vereeniging van Bouwkundigen ) published The East Indies Building Science Bulletin ( Indische Bouwkundige Tijdschrift) from 1897 to 1931. The decentralization policy and the formation of municipalities provided the impetus for the formation of the Union for Local Affairs ( Vereeniging voor Locale Belangen ) in 1911 as forum for communication forum among local officers, planners and builders, and for the development of the different regions according to their specific needs and potential. In 1931 the IBT-Local Technical Bulletin ( IBT-Locale Techniek ) was published, and in the 1930s the Examination for

Hygienic building types

In 1904 the first private architecture firm in Indonesia, Technisch Bureau Biezeveld & Moojen, was established in Bandung.10 This milestone opened up a new era of private architecture practice in the Netherlands East Indies. In 1923 the NIAK ( Nederlandsch-Indischen Architecten Kring, the Netherlands East Indies Architects Circle) was ounded, bringing together idealistic young Dutch architects. It was a defining moment for the emergence of a distinctive new hybrid architectural style and the beginning of a more serious academic debate on Indonesian architectural identity. The THS (Technische Hoogeschool ) or Polytechnic was established in Bandung in 1921. This architecture school was part of the Department of Building ( Bouwkunde ), and its curriculum was based on that of the Technische Hoogeschool

7 8

Yuswadi Saliya (ed.), The Development of the Architect as a Profession and the Establishment of the Indonesian Institute of Architects (Bandung: Badan Sistem Informasi Arsitektur IAI-JB, 1996), 12. Ibid., 14.

9 C.J. de Bruijn, Indische bouwhygine (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1927). 10 Huib Akihary, Architectuur & stedebouw in Indonesi 1870-1970 (Zutphen: De Walburg Pers, 1988), 129.

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JOHANNES WIDODO

in Delft, in the Netherlands, making no distinction between professional and academic training. The debate on issues of modernity, identity and tropicality was very intensive and productive, not only in academic circles but spilling out into the professional community as well. The so-called TropischIndische style evolved, incorporating the quantitative aspects of tropicality and the qualitative nature of the local or regional architectural typology, standing side-by-side with outright modernist streamlined architecture and Art-Deco buildings. It is a clear indicator of the advancement and maturity of the modernization process in the Indonesian architectural discourse.

Puhsarang Church, by Henry Maclaine Pont, 1936

Villa Isola, Bandung, by C.P.W. Schoemakers, 1932

Sonobudoyo Museum, Yogyakarta, by Thomas Karsten, 1935

Present Modern Period: In Search of a Contemporary Indonesian Identity The period from the 1930s to 1950 was marked by global economic depression, great recession, followed by war in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, bringing an end to the building boom, as well as the vibrant academic discourse and great architectural experimentation that had prevailed before the war in Indonesia. The grand plan to build a new capital in Bandung was also shelved. The end of the Second World War was followed by the struggle for independence and a period of instability and insecurity, long after the declaration of independence in 1945, all of which hampered architectural and physical development in Indonesia. The 1950s were a period of renaissance in architectural education, and the rebuilding of the architectural profession in Indonesia. In 1950 the Department of Building ( Bouwkunde Afdeling ) was opened as part of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at the University of Indonesia in Bandung, pioneered by Jacob Thijsse, M. Susilo, and F. Silaban.11 This first public architecture school in independent Indonesia later became the ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology). In 1959 the first generation of eighteen Indonesian architectural engineers graduated from the school. The IAI ( Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia, Indonesian Institute of Architects) in Bandung was led by three senior architects (Friedrich Silaban, Mohammad Susilo and Liem Bwan Tjie). In 1960 the first private architecture school at Parahyangan Catholic University (UNPAR) opened as part of the Faculty of Engineering. The period between 1960 and 1965 was dominated by Sukarnos national-character building policy and national mega-projects (hotels, department stores, offices, mosques, monuments, flyover bridge, sport centre, recreation centre), dominated by post-war International-style and Socialist-style buildings financed by Japanese war reparations money,12 and introduced by architects educated abroad (especially from Eastern Europe). An ideology of modernism, functionalism and reductionism strongly influenced architectural education, urban planning and design, and architectural practice. There were at least two prominent Indonesian architects, Freidrich Silaban and Sujudi, who produced interesting architecture; both were very responsive to the tropical climate, but the first is functional and utilitarian while the latter is more tectonic and poetic.

11 Saliya, The Development of the Architect as a Profession, op. cit. (note 7), 16-20. 12 Masashi Nishihara, The Japanese and Soekarnos Indonesia: Tokyo-Jakarta Relations 1951-1966. Monographs of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1975).

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GANEFO stadium, Jakarta, by Russian architects, 1958

Aga Khan awardwinning project Kali Code, Yogyakarta, by Y.B. Mangunwijaya, 1983-1987

The Suharto New Order, three decades of national development from 1966 to 1998, was characterized by a boom in oil production and in construction, facilitated by the institutionalization of five-year National Development Plans, free-market enterprise, and ersatz capitalism. Socioeconomic divisions between the rich and the poor and between cities and villages grew wider and were often a source of conflict and contestation. Corporate style high-rise architecture in concrete, steel and glass now dominates the skyline in the Jakarta central business district, back-to-back with the high-density, low-rise sprawl of urban kampungs, or settlements. Beginning in the early 1970s, large-scale urban development projects were constructed in the capital (such as Ancol, Krekot, Senen, Grogol), superimposing new functional blocks onto the old urban fabric, destroying many historic buildings. Suharto initiated the spread of the so-called Pancasila mosque a modern reinterpretation based on traditional central Javanese mosque typology in a bid to win support from Muslim communities across Indonesia. Local governments adopted neo-vernacularism to express local identity albeit superficially in their public buildings. This attitude was probably inspired by the creation of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (the Indonesia in Miniature Park) as a representation of Indonesian identity. National efforts to provide public housing could not keep up with the exploding demand, and the National Housing Corporation (Perumnas) only managed to build limited numbers of low-cost mass housing estates (featuring basic sites and services, core housing, walk-up apartments). To deal with worsening environmental conditions in inner-city dwelling enclaves, the government implemented the Kampung Improvement Program (KIP), but this mainly dealt with infrastructure improvements. Overpopulation in Java prompted the government to build new settlements in scarcely populated islands outside Java for migrants.

Amid the mushrooming clusters of corporate-style architecture and private-sector developments (including speculative developments, elite gated communities, consumerist shopping malls, and exclusive resorts), it is imperative that we pay attention to the serious efforts of some Indonesian architects in promoting a pro-community approach (for instance Y.B. Mangunwijaya and Antonio Ismael), and also to the emergence of a younger generation of architects with a fresh spirit of experimentation ( Arsitek Muda Indonesia, AMI), to regenerate healthy debate and discourse in contemporary Indonesian architecture. Final Remarks Modernization does not develop in a vacuum, but in different aspects of specific contexts natural, environmental, social, cultural, physical, and historical. Modernization is a structural process in a formal, environmental and cultural sense. It is a continuous socio-cultural process of transplantation, adjustment, adaptation, accommodation, assimilation, hybridization, and materialization manifested in the myriad forms of architectural production and reproduction. Diversity, variety, unpredictability all of these are basic elements of modern Asian architecture. In Asia including Indonesia the ancient and the modern, the Asian and the non-Asian, have mingled and merged for centuries, producing multi-layered and rich variations of living architecture, evolving and developing from the past into the future, in a never-ending journey of new discoveries and self-discovery. Faced with a vast, living archive of Asias modern architecture, which in many cases represents its sole connection to the past, it is necessary to undertake rigorous research, careful analysis and resolute action to protect its heritage and to place it once more at the centre of daily life. Revitalization of the modern built environment demands the resurrection of lost crafts and techniques and the preservation of an irreplaceable indigenous knowledge that passes away with every generation, in order to offer a real possibility that modern architecture might serve as the genesis of a modern lifestyle and ethos for the people of Asia.13

13 See mAAN Macau Declaration (2001) and mAAN Istanbul Declaration (2005) at www.m-aan.org.

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