Indonesian architecture is comprised from classic-traditional, vernacular and new- contemporary buildings. The classic-traditional is building which build by ancient era. Vernacular architecture is also the form of traditional architecture, especially domestic buildings, with some adjustments build by people today or some generations before. New-contemporary architecture is building which used new material and new construction technique and receive influence from many sources starting from the Dutch colonial period to the post independence era. The introduction of cement and other modern materials and the rapid growth buildings development has produced mixed results.
Indonesian Classical Architecture
The typical feature of Indonesian Classical architecture is Candi, a tower-like structure. The origin of Buddhist and Hindu temple are built of stone, which is raised on a basement and surmounted by a stepped pyramidal roof, ornamented with relics. In symbolic terms, the building is as a representation of the legendary Mount Meru, which in Hindu-Buddhist mythology is identified as the residence of the gods. Candi Borobudur structures, the famous 9th-century Buddhists and Candi Prambanan for Hindus in Central Java similarly invoked this idea of cosmic mountain. In the East-Javanese era, the architecture of court culture was developing more indigenous elements rather than Indian elements, and more ever, this court architecture was not in sharp contrast with that of peasant culture. It was only a matter of structural materials that decided the degree and order of architecture, not the ideas which underlay those appearances.
Hindu’s culture is counted for at least 10 centuries had affected Indonesian culture before its connection with Islam. For that long period, the architecture heritance is very limited for some dozens of temples except for Bali Island that still have thousands since the people are still Hindu.
Vernacular Architecture in Indonesia
Traditional and vernacular architecture in Indonesia originates from two sources. One is the great Hindu tradition brought to Indonesia from India via Java. The second is an indigenous architecture pre-dating the Hindu epic. Vernacular houses that most found in rural area are built using natural materials as thatch roof, bamboo poles, woven bamboo, coconut wood, and stone. Buildings are organic statements in complete harmony with the environment. Many of these are temporary such as the offering houses set up before harvest in the rice fields. The Indonesian houses have always been particularly adept using the bamboo.
Traditional Architecture in Indonesia
The oldest vernacular buildings in Indonesia today are no more than about 150 years old. However stone carving on the walls of 9th-century Hindu and Buddhist temples in central Java reveal close correspondences between the domestic architecture of that time and contemporary vernacular forms which are still being built today. The vernacular architecture of Indonesia belongs to an ancient building tradition which can be found throughout of islands Southeast Asia and parts of the mainland. Characteristic feature include post foundations, an elevated living floor and a pitched roof ridge and outward leaning gable ends and constructed from wood and other perishable organic materials.
Islamic Influences in Architecture
Islamic culture in Indonesia was started in 13th AD when in Northern Sumatra was appeared Islamic kingdom Pasai in 1292. Two and a half centuries later along with Western peoples, Islam came to Java. Islam was never spread through Indonesia by political forces like in India nor Turkey. Islamic culture in Indonesia was really intent only in mosques, palaces, and grave buildings.
With the declining power of the Majapahit kingdom the Hindu-Javanese period of Javanese history, highlighted by the grandeur of its kingdom in the fourteenth century with series of great temples, monuments, and old-Javanese and Sanskrit literature, came to an end. Nevertheless, it did not means that this Javanese “Classical Age” was then under the hand of “Barbarians” who took the center stage, nor was it the beginning of Javanese “Dark Age”. Successive Islamic kingdoms were heirs to the sophisticated culture Majapahit, which they adopted by their own genius. The “New Age” produced the mosque of Demak, Kudus and Banten in the sixteenth century, the royal grave-site of Imogiri, and the palaces of Jogjakarta and Surakarta in the eighteenth century. Sanskrit and Old-Javanese literature gradually disappeared to be changed and altered by more contemporary ones. Encourage by the fact that Islam did not introduce any new physical forms and its teachings were taught in mystical ways by the Sufis, this syncretism, unfortunately, failed to establish Islam as a system that totally eliminated Hindu-Javanism. Islamic form used Hindu-Javanese ideas (see Prijotomo, 1988)
The Kudus Mosque with the Hindu’s Style for the Drum Tower and the Gates
The gradual spread of Islam through the region from the 12th century onwards introduced another important set of architectural influences, in this instance, however, the changes were more ideological then technological, the advent of Islam did not lead to the introduction of an entirely new building tradition, but rather saw the appropriation of existing architectural forms, which were reinvented or reinterpreted to suit Muslim requirements, The Kudus drum tower, on the north coast of Java, is a case in point. Resembling a candi build of the 14th-century Majapahit era, the tower was adapted for use as the drum tower for a more recently built Islamic mosque following the collapse of the Majapahit kingdom and the coming of Islam. Similarly, the earliest Indonesian mosques draw their inspiration from existing building tradition in Java, and elsewhere in the Archipelago, in which four central posts support a soaring pyramidal roof. In both vernacular and Islamic structure, the four columns are attributed special symbolic significance.
The Dutch and the New Indies Style
Western influences was starting in 1509 when Potugeese and Spaniard starting to explore the eastern world even thought Marco Polo from Venice in 1292 was come to Indonesia for trade activities seeking to seize control of the immensely profitable trade in spices. The Portuguese and Spanish, and later the Dutch, introduced their own architectural agenda to the region and many elements of European architecture subsequently found their way into the local architectural traditions. However this appropriation of ideas was not simply a one-way process: the Dutch readily adopted indigenous architectural elements to create a unique form of colonial architecture known as the Indies Style. More recently in the early decades of this century, Dutch Modernist also consciously turned to the local vernacular as a source of inspiration for a new tropical architecture which combined traditional forms with modern building materials and construction techniques.
Blenduk church and Lawang Sewu building, examples of the Dutch architecture (source; www.baligamelan.com)
Colonial building in Indonesia, especially the longest period by the Dutch1602 – 1945 is very interesting for exploring how the cross culture between the western and eastern in building type and form, and also how the Dutch developed their building acclimatization in tropical region. According to Sumalyo (1993), the architecture of Dutch colonial in Indonesia is a unique culture phenomenon that never been found in other places nor in their own homeland, Netherlands. They were resulted from mixed culture within the colonial and a lot number variation culture in Indonesia.
The difference of Western and Indonesian architecture according to Dutch architect is correlation between building and people. Western architecture (occidental) is a totality construction, while Indonesian’s have been developed as subjective matter, elementary, with preferring outside appearance especially front façade. The natural condition between the sub-tropical Netherlands and wet-tropical Indonesia is also the main consideration of Dutch buildings in Indonesia.
Actually, the Dutch was not directly found the right type for their building developed in Indonesia. During the early European colonization of 18th century, similar building types from four seasons Holland were directly transplanted into the warm-humid climate of tropical Indonesia. Flat facade without veranda, large windows, small eaves and ventilations were commonly seen in the oldest part of Dutch walled city, such as in old Batavia (Widodo and Wong 2002).
According to Sumintardja (1978) VOC had chosen Java Island as a centre of their trading activities and the first building was built in Batavia as a fort of Batavia. Inside the fort, was built houses for colony, had simple form as native houses at the beginning but lately intent to copy the houses style of Western. For bricks wall houses, they imported the materials directly from Holland and also with roof tiles and interior furniture. The houses that became the first tradition were houses without field, in elongated organization just like in Netherlands itself. These houses were two floors, thin in façade but wide inside. These type oh houses lately been used by Chinese after The Dutch changed with bigger houses with wide fields. These houses called as landhuizen that had form without veranda in early period, after got acclimatization with the local climate, these houses were completed with front big veranda just as pendapa or hall in vernacular Javanese building.
In the beginning, these houses were constructed as two stories building, after experiencing from earthquake strikes and also for efficiency purposes, these houses was built just in one floor only. But after the price of land became increase, the houses were built by two stories again.
The invention and innovation in Architectural design became more formal and intensified after the establishment of Architect profession, first under the Public Works (BOW) in 1814-1930. Around 1920s-1930s, the debate on the issue of Indonesian identity and tropical character was very intensive and productive, not only in academic circle but also in the practice. Some Dutch Architects, such as Thomas Karsten, Maclaine Pont, Thomas Nix, C.P.Wolf Schoemaker, and many others, were engaged in very productive discourse in both academic and praxis. The most interesting part in the development of modern Architecture in Indonesia was a period around 1930s, when some Dutch architects and academics developed a new discourse known as the "Indisch-Tropisch" architectural style and urbanism in Indonesia.
Some typical functional characteristics of the house prototype are: separation of service zone from dwelling zone, one function is assigned to one room, veranda spaces and covered connectors, and low building coverage ratio. Some typical formal characteristics of the house prototype are: dominant and articulated pyramid roof, additive and subtractive articulation of the box (body volume), three levels division of head-body-foot, clear distinction of the main house and the annex building, horizontal sun-shading elements, ventilation perforation in the walls, high ceiling of the main house, and Art Deco stylistic elements and decorations. The typologies of the Dutch colonial architecture are; almost big buildings have outer corridors that have double function as a room hub and a buffer from direct sunlight and bigger roof with higher slope and sometime constructed by two layers with the space are used for ventilating the hot air.
The Dutch architects have a good sense in relation with the nature were the buildings are placed. Their senses can be looked from the element of construction were a very aware with the nature. In Sumalyo (1993): Karsten in 1936 reported in the article:” Semarangse kantoorgebouwen” or Two Office Building in Semarang Central Java:
1. Within all of outer column both of first and second floor, there are placed doors, windows, and ventilation that have wide as a span within two column its self. Floor to floor space is too high; 5, 25 m in the first floor and 5 m for the second floor. The higher room, windows and ventilation became a good system of ventilation. For allowing air circulations in the roof, there is a hole ventilation in the upper wall (circle windows)
2. Beside by wide opening and higher room, open corridor in West and East side covers the main room from direct sunlight.
When early urbanization happened in Batavia (Jakarta), there were so many people build the luxurious villa in surrounding the city. Its architecture style were classic but always have well adaptation with the nature with ventilations, windows and open corridors as a buffer from the direct sunlight. In Bandung, Villa Isolla is the one example of this good architecture (by Schoemaker1933)
Villa Isolla, one of the Dutch masterpieces of architecture in Indonesia (source: Prijotomo, 1996)
Indonesian Contemporary Architecture
Soon after the Independence, the modern development took a place in Indonesia. This continued into the 1970s and 1980s when the rapid growth of the Indonesian economy led to massive building programs at every level of development from low-cost housing schemes to factories, airports, shopping malls and skyscrapers. Many of the most prestigious projects were designed by foreign architects who seldom applied themselves to designing for a specifically Indonesian context. More recently, as the world's major city centers, especially those in Asia, have come increasingly to resemble one another, irrespective of local histories, climate and cultural orientations, there has been a growing demand for instilling a sense of place in the built landscape - one that reflects local identities and sensibilities. Postmodernism has encouraged this quest for a 'new architecture' so that today one finds contemporary Indonesian architects again exploring their rich architectural heritage with a view to developing a viable alternative to the hegemony of Modernism.
Contemporary Houses in Indonesia
Localized Indonesian architecture was commonly happen in 50s with the domination of roof forms. The ‘less style’ from colonial building era also broadened with new techniques and equipments like concrete construction, air conditioning, and elevator device. In ten years after its independence, economical condition in Indonesia was not yet strongly enough. The less costly building was born in order to find the modern Indonesian architecture like joglo roof form for the modern buildings.
Residential architecture became broadly developed in 1980 when housing industries just in their beginning. Private houses with their unique architecture were born but not with mass housing. The term of folk house, developing house, prototype house, cheap house, simply house, and main house were known well for the people. This type was constructed with the idea of minimal space, rational construction and non conventional (Sumintardja, 1978)
Questions for Indonesian Architecture
The new movements in architecture such as Modern, Deconstruction, Postmodern, etc seem to be followed in Indonesia especially in Java. But, in reality, it just shows up that they were absorbed and copied in final form only, instead of the ideas and the thinking processes. Do not surprised if later appeared the shallow views; “Gridded façade is Modern, Stepped façade is post Modern” (Atmadi, 1997). Architecture is just only seen as object not as a living milieu.
Sumalyo, (1993) stated that the common views of Western architecture: ‘Purism’, where pointed for Form and Function, is opposite with the tradition concepts that have context with the nature. Another scholar, Kartadiwirya in Budihardjo (1989,) argued, why the principle of tropical ‘nusantara’ architecture rarely been practiced in Indonesia is because the thinking of planning process is never being thought. They just only teach about conventional planning for previous 35 years without changing. It seems also still continuing up to recent days. Unfortunately almost of teaching materials were come from Western way of thinking in architecture which according to Frick, (1997) had produced the weakness of Indonesian architecture. He also explained that Materials using in modern buildings is just because of mass production reason that more ‘Western’ and far away from local tradition. This condition had been triggering the unusual usage of materials and regardless the local condition.
