Architecture of

Indonesia

Architectural Influences

Geographical

The Malay Peninsula is bounded by southern Thailand in the North, and on the west and South by the straits of Malacca which separate it from Sumatra, which in turn is separated from Java on the SE by the Sundra Straits. Java is the first of a Chain of Islands extending eastward. Borneo is the largest island in the archipelago separated by the straights if Macassar on the East from Celebes, to the North of Borneo and Celebes lies the Philippines.

Geological

Much of this vast region is mountainous, a long curving band of active and extinct volcanoes passes through Sumatra, Java and Bali, and Volcanic rock has been extensively used for construction work.

Climatic

Indonesia almost bestrides the equator, with a tropical climate and not great seasonal variation in temperature. The climate is also generally humid and under the influence of both monsoons.

Historical

Indonesian culture, especially its architecture has been to a great extent dominated and influenced by the Indian, although European influences have also been particularly strong since the nineteenth century. Traditional buildings in Indonesia are built on stilts with oversized saddle roofs which have been the home of the Batak and the Toraja. The Torajan use the buffalo horns, stacked one above another in front of the house as an indication of status. Scenes from the Ramayana adorn the outer walls in different colors. However, Chinese, Arab, and European architectural influences have also been quite significant in Indonesian architecture.

Architectural Character

In Middle Java, an architecture of solid stone walls, corbelled arches and with no loadbearing columns, which reached its consummation with the stupa of Borobudur and the Temple complex of Prambanam. This is always associated with isolated religious communities and never with large Centres of population.

Borobudur Temple complex of Prambanam

Architectural Character

• A new development began with the shift of power to East Java in the 11th century characterized by a lessening of Indian Influence and increased evidence of the native Indonesian tradition, reflected especially in the sculpture which already foreshadows the folk-art of the Javanese “wayang” puppet drama.

Wayang Puppet Drama

Architectural Character

• Timber is abundant and varied throughout Indonesia, and has always been used for houses, the traditional dwelling is a ‘long house’ generally raised on stilts and often sheltering an entire clan. It is seen at its architectural best in the Menang Kabau homes of South central Sumatra, which are carried on carved and decorated wooden pillars, the facades adorned with colour patterns of interwined flowers in white, black and red, the inward-sloping ridge(saddle back) rood with high gables at each end ornamented with buffalo horns.

menang kabau

Architecture in Indonesia

"Architecture" are often perceived as cultural symbols and as work of art. Also as Historical Civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

"Indonesia" is a country in Southeast Asia, which is crossed by the equator and located between the continents of Asia and Australia as well as between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Also Indonesiaconsists of various ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Indonesia has a tropical climate.

The Architecture of Indonesia reflects the diversity of cultural, historical and geographic influences that have shaped Indonesia as a whole. Invaders, Colonizers, missionaries, merchants and traders brought cultural changes that had a profound effect on building styles and techniques. Traditionally, the most significant foreign influence has been Indian. However, Chinese, Arab - and since the 18th and 19th centuries - European influences have been important.

Religious Architecture

Architectural heritage influenced by religious are commonly found in Java. The beginning are Hindu – Buddhist kingdoms between the 8th and 14th centuries. The earliest surviving Hindu temples in Java are at the Dieng Plateau. Thought to have originally numbered as many as 400, only 8 remain today just 100 years later the second Kingdom of Mataram built the Prambanan complex near Jogjakarta; considered the largest and finest example of Hindu architecture in Java.

Prambanan Temple

Religious Architecture

The World Heritage-listed Buddhist monument Borobudur was built by the Sailendra Dynasty between 750 and 850 AD, but it was abandoned shortly after its completion as a result of the decline of Buddhism and a shift of power to eastern Java. Majapahit influences can be seen today in the enormous number of Hindu temples of varying sizes spread throughout Bali. Several significant temples can be found in every village, and shrines, even small temples found in most family homes.

Borobudur

Religious Architecture

By the fifteenth century, Islam had become the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra, Indonesia's two most populous islands. The new religion and the foreign influences that accompanied it, were absorbed and reinterpreted, with "mosques" given a unique Indonesian/Javanese interpretation. At the time, Javanese mosques took many design cues from Hindu, Buddhist, and even Chinese architectural influences. For example; Grand Mosque- Yogyakarta. They lacked, for example, the ubiquitous Islamic dome which did not appear in Indonesia until the 19th century, but had tall timber, multi-level roofs similar to the pagodas of Balinese Hindu temples still common today.

Grand Mosque- Yogyakarta

Traditional Architecture

Indonesia has 33 provinces, Each of province has its own distinctive form and identity of traditional vernacular architecture, known as Rumah Adat in Indonesian. The concept of Rumah Adat are base on social relations, traditional laws, taboos, myths and religion. The main focus of that house for family, theirs community and some residents activities. Design of Rumah Adat didn't have an architect designer but that build their own homes or community under direction of a master builder or a carpenter. Also the amazing unique is every province has different ethnic and they have different distinctive form as well.

Rumah Adat/ Custom House

Rumah adat or Custom House are at the centre of a web of customs, social relations, traditional laws, taboos, myths and religions that bind the villagers together. The house provides the main focus for the family and its community, and is the point of departure for many activities of its residents. Traditional Indonesian homes are not architect designed, rather villagers build their own homes, or a community will pool their resources for a structure built under the direction of a master builder and/or a carpenter.

Different Traditional House of Provinces in Indonesia

Province of Aceh

Rumah Aceh : Rumoh Aceh

Batak Toba : Bolon Batak Karo : Siwaluh Jabu

Province North Sumatra / Batak

Province West Sumatra / Padang

Rumah Gadang

Province Riau

Rumah Lancang

Province Riau Islands 

Rumah belah bubung

Province Jambi

Rumah Panjang

Province South Sumatra / Palembang

Rumah Limas

Province Lampung

Nuwo Sesat

Province South Sulawesi /Ujung Pandang

Toraja Houses

 Province DKI Jakarta

Rumah kebaya

Province West Java / Sunda

Kesepuhan

Province Banten

Kasepuhan

Province Central Java

Rumah joglo

 Province DI Yogyakarta

Rumah Bangsal Kencono

Palace Architecture

Istana (or "Palace") architecture of the various kingdoms and realms of Indonesia, is more often than not based on the vernacular adat domestic styles of the area. Royal courts, however, were able to develop much grander and elaborate versions of this traditional architecture. the Pagaruyung Palace is a three-storey version of the Minangkabau Rumah Gadang. while the omo sebua ("chief's house") in Bawomataluo, Nias is an enlarged version of the homes in the village and the palaces of the Balinese such as the Puri Agung in Gianyar use the traditional bale form.

Pagaruyung Palace

Palace Architecture

Similar to trends in domestic architecture, the last two centuries have seen the use of European elements in combination with traditional elements, albeit at a far more sophisticated and opulent level compared to domestic homes such as the Javanese Kraton, for example, large pendopos of the jogloroof form with tumpang sariornamentation are elaborate but based on common Javanese forms as well.

Kraton Yogyakarta

Colonial Architecture

From the 17th century to the end of World War II, the Indonesian identity was that of a Dutch colony, an extension of the Netherlands. In fact, the name for Indonesia while under the Dutch administration, Netherlands Indie, translates to "the Netherlands that lies in the Indie." Architecturally, Indonesia was not a virgin land when the Dutch came. Its architectural tradition and heritage contrasted greatly with western architecture in general, and Dutch architecture in particular. The Dutch imported their building types and construction methods to Indonesia, and in fact when colonizing bureaucracies matured, the buildings themselves were designed in the Netherlands, materials were shipped to Indonesia, and constructed under Dutch supervision (and probably at the hands of a Dutch or Chinese master mason or master carpenter). This imported architecture was consciously as similar to Neo-Classical architecture built in the Netherlands as possible.

East Javanese Bank Office in Surabaya

Colonial Architecture

By the end of the nineteenth century this imported European style begin to influence Indonesia's traditional architecture. In the Yogyakarta and Surakarta palaces, indigenous architectural forms are juxtaposed against European styles. Still more extreme an example, The Royal Cemetery of Sumenep Sultanate, built in the mid-19th century, was completely European in style. How European architecture entered the 'center and peak of Javanese culture' is still in debate. A more revealing question might be what influenced the king's or sultan's decision to allow European styles to infiltrate traditional design so much? Certainly the wholesale adoption of European architecture may suggest an acceptance of cultural inferiority by the sultan, or possibly an architectural message and exemplar of how two architectural sources (local and European) meet.

The Royal Cemetery of Sumenep Sultanate

Palace Architecture

Although row houses, canals and enclosed solid walls were first thought as protection against tropical diseases coming from tropical air, years later the Dutch learnt to adapt their architectural style with local building features (long eaves, verandahs, porticos, large windowsand ventilation openings). The of the 19th century were among the first colonial buildings to incorporate Indonesian architectural elements and attempt adapting to the climate. The basic form, such as the longitudinal organisation of spaces and use of joglo and limasan roof structures, was Javanese, but it incorporated European decorative elements such as neo-classical columns around deep verandahs.

Ceremonial Hall, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung

Post Independence Architecture

Early twentieth century modernisms are still very evident across much of Indonesia, again mostly in Java. The 1930s world depression was devastating to Java, and was followed by another decade of war, revolution and struggle, which restricted the development of the built environment. Further, the Javanese art-deco style from the 1920s became the root for the first Indonesian national style in the 1950s. The politically turbulent 1950s meant that the new but bruised Indonesia was neither able to afford or focussed to follow the new international movements such as modernist brutalism. Continuity from the 1920s and 30s through to the 1950s was further supported Indonesian planners who had been colleagues of the Dutch Karsten, and they continued many of his principles.

Bundaran Hotel Indonesia - Jakarta

Post Independence ArchitectureDespite the new country's economic woes, government-funded major

projects were undertaken in the modernist style, particularly in the capital Jakarta. Reflecting President Sukarno's political views, the architecture is openly nationalistic and strives to show the new nation’s pride in itself. Projects approved by Sukarno, himself a civil engineer who had acted as an architect, include:A clover-leaf highway.• A broad by-pass in Jakarta (Jalan Sudirman).• Four high-rise hotels including the famous Hotel Indonesia.• A new parliament building.• The 127 000-seat Bung Karno Stadium.• Numerous monuments including The National Monument.• Istiqlal Mosque the largest mosque in Southeast Asia.

Istiqlal MosqueJalan Sudirman

Post Independence Architecture

The 1950s jengki style, so named after Indonesian references to the American armed forces as 'yankee', was a distinctive Indonesian architectural style that emerged. The modernist cubic and strict geometric forms that the Dutch had used before World War II, were transformed into more complicated volumes, such as pentagons or other irregular solids. This architecture is an expression of the political spirit of freedom among the Indonesians.

Jengki Style House

Post Independence Architecture

The International Style dominated in Indonesia in the 1970s, as it did in much of the rest of the world. The 1970s saw the Indonesian government promote indigenous Indonesian forms. Constructed in 1975, the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park re-created over twenty buildings of exaggerated proportions to showcase Indonesian traditional vernacular forms. The government also called for Indonesian architects to design an Indonesian architecture, and by the 1980s in particular, most public buildings were built with exaggerated elements of traditional vernacular forms.

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE 

The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s saw foreign investment and economic growth; large construction booms brought major changes to Indonesian cities, including the replacement of the early twentieth styles with late modern and postmodern styles. The urban construction booms have continued in the 21st century and are shaping skylines in Indonesian cities. Many new buildings are clad with shiny glass surfaces to reflect the tropical sun. Architectural styles are influenced by developments in architecture internationally including the introduction of deconstructivism architecture.

Indonesian Bamboo Restaurant

BNI Building, Jakarta.

References

• http://juliesartoni.blogspot.com/2012/06/traditonal-toraja-house-of-south.html• http://

juliesartoni.blogspot.com/2012/03/architecture-of-indonesia.html• Architectural Character and the History of Architecture by: George S.

Salvan