ARCHITECTURE IN INDONESIA

GEOGRAPHICALIndonesia is an archipelagic island country in Southeast Asia, lying between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is in a strategic location astride or along major sea lanes from Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean. The country's variations in culture have been shaped—although not specifically determined—by centuries of complex interactions with the physical environment. Although Indonesians are now less vulnerable to the effects of nature as a result of improved technology and social programs, to some extent their social diversity has emerged from traditionally different patterns of adjustment to their physical circumstances.

RELIGOUSThe first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, is "belief in the one and only God". A number of different religions are practiced in the country, and their collective influence on the country's political, economic and cultural life is significant. The Indonesian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. However, the government only recognizes five official religions (Islam, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism). Indonesian law requires that every Indonesian citizen hold an identity card that identifies that person with one of these six religions, although citizens may be able to leave that section blank. Indonesia does not recognize agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is illegal.

RELIGIONS

Islam (87.18)Christians (9.87%)Hinduism (1.69%)Buddhism (0.72%)Confucianism (0.76%)

Architecture or Art Building of the region of Central Java province are grouped into two,

namely:

• Traditional Architecture• Modern Architecture

Traditional Architecture

That is the art of building native Java which is still alive and growing in the Java community. The study of art by the Java community building commonly called science or also called Wong Kalang Kalang. Which is the main building in the existing art building Java 5 (five) Types, are:

- Bake-pe, the form we have encountered as many places selling drinks, rice and others who are on the edge of the road. If the function can be developed as a neighborhood watch, where the car / garage, factory, and so on.

- Village, generally as a residence, either in city and villages and in the mountains. The development of this form is also used as a residence.

- Limasan, mostly for housing. Development with the addition of patio or porch, as well as some rooms will be created forms sinom, curses float, symbol pendants, trajumas, and others. Only the form unusual trajumas used as a residence.

- Joglo or Tikelan, the building is generally used as a pavilion and also to residence (palace) `

- Tajug or mosque, used as a sacred place, such as: the mosque, where the king reigns, tomb. There's nothing to shelter.

TRADITIONAL HOUSESIn Indonesia, the construction of the house symbolizes the division of the macrocosm into three regions: the upper world, the seat of deities and ancestors. The typical way of buildings in Southeast Asia is to build on stilts, an architectural form usually combined with a saddle roof. Another characteristic of Southeast Asian houses is the forked horn on the roof, which is considered to be a symbol of the buffalo, regarded throughout the region as a link between Heaven and this world. The most famous stilt houses of Indonesia are those of the Dayak in Borneo, the Minangkabau and Batak on Sumatra, and the Toraja on Sulawesi.

The Long Houses of the Dayak

Long House - before 1920, Tumbang Malahui, Central Borneo.

The Dayak, some of the original inhabitants of Borneo, build long houses on stilts, using ironwood for the structure and tree bark for the walls; the floor are simple planks of wood placed side by side. The length of these houses was for the last century of 110 meters (over 360 feet) and today they generally range from 10 to 70 meters (33 to 230 feet).

On Borneo the long house forms a center for both social life and for rituals. Here people meet to talk after work, and its here the central ceremonies and rituals of the group are performed.

In each long house is a central stilt or main post which is the first to be placed in position when the house is built. This post is associated with the ancestor who founded the house has a sacred significance; it stands in the center of the house and its looked on as the link between the underworld and the upper world. The long houses were often decorated with representations of water snakes and rhinoceros birds. They were connected with the group's central creation myth, for water snake is associated with the underworld and the rhinoceros bird with the upper world of the good spirits.

The Houses of the Minangkabau

Rice store - Minangkabau architecture, Pagaruyung near Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra.

The Minangkabau are the Malaysian people who lives in the Padang highlands of Sumatra (west of Sumatra). Typical of the houses of the Minangkabau are the distinctive roofs, which look like buffalo horns. The word "Minangkabau" can actually be interpreted as a compound of the words menang (win) and kerbau (buffalo). This derives from a local legends that people relates that a buffalo fight was arranged by the locals and the people of the influential kingdom of Majapahit(eastern Java). The locals’ buffalo was the winner and since that time they have called themselves the "buffalo winners", Minangkabau, as a proud testament to their strength and courage. The houses are called rumah gadang (large house) and are not inhabited by differents families, but by three or four generations who come from one ancestor and thus a rumah gadang is also a family unit, and each of the Minangkabau identifies completely with his or her own rumah gadang.

The rumah gadang has three main areas: immediately after the entrance comes a middle ares (rumah tongah), where there is normally a central post; adjoining this the anjuang, and the bedrooms (biliak). Opposite the anjuang is the kitchen and in front of that a large space (pangkalan), where visitors are received. While the long house is a meeting place for all, the rumah  gadang is essentially a women's area; none of the men spends much time in the house with his mother or his wife, and the biliak (bedrooms) are seen as room of the house reflects a woman's life cycle, and forms a journey from the central post to the anjuang, then the biliak, and lastly to the kitchen.

The Houses of the Batak

Batak house - Rumah adat, Lake Toba on the Island of Samosir.

The Batak, who live in north Sumatra, are divided into six ethnic groups. Two Bataks races, the Mandailing and the Angkola Batak, became Muslim in the middle of the 19th century, and Toba Batak were converted to Christianity in 1864 by the German Rheinisch Missionary Society. The others kept their native religion, though there have been converts to Islam and Christianity more recently.

"The houses of the Toba and Karo are recognizable by their massive style of building construction, which is suited to the way the inhabitants settled more and less permanently. The stilt house is an eminently pratical form of architecture for life in the tropics. Unfortunately, the Toba Batak houses are no longer being built. Earlier, rice stores (sopo) were a part of the traditional house, therumah  adat. The sopo were very important as status symbols.

The ornaments put onto the external walls of the house are meant to drive away evil influences. These ornaments consist of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations, carved decorative ornaments, and wall paintings. The colors used are natural colors, the most iportant being red (from red clay), white (from chalk), and black (from charcoal), which respectively represent the three spheres of the cosmos: the human world, the world of good spirits above, and the underworld.

The Houses of the Toraja

A tongkonan - Toraja area, Sulawesi (Celebes).

The ethnic groups in the mountain regions of southwest and central Sulawesi (Celebes) are known by the name of Toraja, which has come to mean "those who live upstream" or "those who live in the mountains". Their name is in fact derived from Raja, which in Sanskrit means "king". The society is hierarchically structured: the noblemen are called rengnge, the ordinary people tomakaka, and the slaves to kaunan; birth determines which rank a person will occupy.

The distinctive features of the traditional houses (tongkonan) of the Toraja are the "buffalo horns", the roof design and the rich decoration on the walls. The buffalo is a symbol of status, courage, strength and fighting spirit.

Designed as a representation of the universe, the tongkonan is constructed in three parts: the upper world (the roof), the world of humans (the middle of the building), and the underworld (the space under the floor). The highly distinctive roofs constructed by the Toraja have given rise to various ingenious interpretations. Certainly the roof is something of deep significance for the Toraja, and even today they build "modern" (in other words houses built with cement) houses with such roofs.

Modern Architecture

Modern architecture in Indonesia doesn’t have its development in the country. As other architectural style that is imported from the western countries, This style coming to Indonesia because of influence of globalization the modern architecture style developed as an international style that has similar appearance and concept in all countries. At least modern style keep having a similarity that function as the beginning of design. In Indonesia, modern style is considered as a style where functionality is also the beginning of design.

Kudus Mosque

Bogor Palace

Pagaruyung Palace

Niaga Tower

REFERENCES• Bertrand J, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, Cambridge : Cambridge University

Press, 2004, 278 pages, ISBN 0-521-81889-3. Retrieved October 22, 2006• Digital Atlas of Indonesian History by Robert Cribb from 17th century and earlier• http://artasia.www2.50megs.com/Indonesia/houses.htm• http://ruangkotahanun.blogspot.com/2011/09/traditional-houses-in-indonesia.html• http://probohindarto.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/modern-architecture-style-in-indonesia/