Colonial architecture of Indonesia
These types of colonial era structures are more prevalent in Java and Sumatra, as those islands were considered more economically significant during the Dutch imperial period.
[1] As a result of this, there is a large number of well preserved colonial era buildings that are still densely concentrated within Indonesian cities in Java and Sumatra to this day.
[2] One of the first major Dutch settlements was Batavia (later Jakarta) which in the 17th and 18th centuries was a fortified brick and masonry city built on a low lying terrain.
[3] The Dutch settlements in the 17th century were generally intra-muros, within walled defences to protect them from attack by other European trade rivals and native revolt.
The houses within Batavia are described as being "fairly tall with a narrow façade and plastered walls inset with crossbar windows provided with rattan wickerwork for ventilation".
[6] In Batavia, for example, they constructed canals through its low-lying terrain, which were fronted by small-windowed and poorly ventilated row houses, mostly in a Chinese–Dutch hybrid style.
[6] And by the second half of the 17th century people inside walled Batavia started to build their large countryside estates and villas alongside the Molenvliet Canal, the best examples to survive are former mansion of Reyner de Klerk which was built in rigid European style.
In fact at the early 18th century Batavia had been described as a "Chinese city", and they had dominated the trade and economic sector of many VOC outposts around the East Indies.
[7] The Dutch Indies country houses of the middle 18th 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.
It was in this period also that the number of growing appreciation of indigenous architectural forms; Tawang railway station (1864) in Semarang features example of a harmonious assimilation of eastern and western ideas.
There was also increasing interest in exploiting Indonesia's wealth in oil and gas, leading capitalists to further set an eye on the archipelago and the Dutch to upgrade its infrastructures.
[12] Bandung, which once was described as a "laboratory",[13] is of particular note with one of the largest remaining collections of 1920s Art-Deco buildings in the world, with the notable work of several Dutch architects and planners, including Albert Aalbers, Thomas Karsten, Henri Maclaine Pont, J. Gerber, and C.P.W.
[14] A large number of train stations, business hotels, factories and office blocks, hospitals and education institutions were built in this period.
This resulted to the introduction of architecture styles such as Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, De Stijl and Amsterdam School, most of which had survived and can be observed in design for colonial period offices, churches, public buildings and villas.
Practical measures carried over from the earlier Indies Style country houses, which responded to the Indonesian climate, included overhanging eaves, larger windows and ventilation in the walls.
Medan was once known as "Parijs van Sumatra" and have a large number of Art Deco colonial offices concentrated around Kesawan Square.
Singaraja, the island's former colonial capital and port, has a number of art-deco kantor style homes, tree-lined streets and dilapidated warehouses.
The lack of development due to the Great Depression, the turmoil of the Second World War and Indonesia's independence struggle of the 1940s, and economic stagnation during the politically turbulent 1950s and 60s, meant that much colonial architecture has been preserved through to recent decades.
