Technological Institute of the Philippines

938 Aurora Blvd. Cubao, Quezon City

AR 333A / History of Architecture 3

INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE
Assignment No. 4

Maria Elaiza Ann R. Taguse

Ar. Lawrence Dolores II

Student

Instructor

AR31FA3

July 30, 2015

Section

Date

Table of Contents

References
Salvan, George

I. Influences

II. Architectural Character

Ching, Francis D.K.

III. Examples

IV. Terminology

V. Significance of the Study

Architecture of Indonesia

Traditional Architecture of Indonesia

Countries and their CultureIndonesia

INFLUENCES

GEOGRAPHICAL

GEOLOGICAL

CLIMATIC

Eastern coast of Asia

Mountainous

Tropical

HISTORICAL
RELIGIOUS

SOCIAL

Hinduism, Buddhism, and

Islamic

Ethnic Groups

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

In Middle Java, an architecture of solid stone walls,

corbelled arches and with no load-bearing columns,
which reached its comsummation with the stupa of
Barabadur and the Temple complex of Prambanam
This is always associated with isolated religious communities and never with large Centres of population
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
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 adored with colour patterns of intertwined in
white, black and red, the inward-sloping ridge (saddle
back) roof with high gables at each end ornamented
with buffalo horns

TIMBER
CONSTRUCTION

STEEP SLOPING
ROOFS

The norm is for a post, beam and lintel

structural system that take load straight
to the ground with either wooden or
bamboo walls that are non-load bearing
Traditionally, rather than nails, mortis
and tenon joints and wooden pegs are
used
Hardwood is generally used for piles
and a combination of soft and hard
wood is used for the house's upper nonload bearing walls, and are often made
of lighter wood or thatch
The thatch material can be coconut and
sugar palm leaves, alang alang grass and
rice straw

LONGHOUSES ON
STILTS

COCONUT THATCH
HEAVY GABLES

EXAMPLES

The great cosmic mountain at Borobudur (ca.

760830 CE) was started in the reign of the
Shailendra king Indra and completed in that of
Samaratunga

Though
based
on
earlier
experiments,
Borobudur is unique in its formal organization
and articulation

The plan follows a typical Buddhist mandala

diagram, with a biaxial symmetrical order
composed of a series of jagged terraces giving
way to round ones in the middle

Borobudur is at one level a quintessential

stupa, having been built onto a solid mound; at
another level, it is a three-dimensional
pedagogical process

The building is neither a temple nor a

monastery. Rather, it is something of a
university that one goes to, not to invoke divine
beings but to participate in a didactic journey,
to learnby moving through its spacesa
progression of lessons through which the
successful student can attain a state of bodhi,
or perfected wisdom, just as the Sakyamuni
Buddha did 2,500 years prior

STUPA OF BOROBUDUR

Theatrically sited on the Java plains against a

background of smoking volcanoes

This extraordinary building symbolizes the world

mountain Meru of Indian Cosmology and the
Mahayana Buddhist cosmic system through the
nine stages there are nine storeys or terraces
which lead to Nirvana

Basically square in plan, with a stone plinthfoundation each 150 m side having slightly
stepped faces, (diminishing to three at the higher
levels Borobudur rises through five rectangular
closed galleries and three circular open terraces
(the latter carrying 72 bell-like stupas to the
crowning Central Stupa
The galleries display some 1,300 pane; of
sculpture, depicting the life of the Buddha and
legends from the sacred Buddhist texts

The journey begins by circumambulating

the 4 lower galleries, which have 2 rows
of
sculpted panels on each side,
recounting sequentially stories from the
life of the Buddha

These narrow galleries are staggered to

block all lines of sight, in order to focus
the pilgrims attention on the panels

Only after having cleared these 4

levels can pilgrims ascend to the round
upper levels, where there are no
enclosing walls

Instead, they encounter the bellshaped hollow stupas, each one of

which contains a different sculpture of
the seated Buddha displaying one of
the
mudras,
the
characteristic
symbolic gestures of Buddhism

The openings on the lower stupas

are diamond-shaped and large, while
those on the ones above are square,
smaller, and fewer in number

EXAMPLES

Around the platform, 224 small shrines are

arrayed in concentric rings, with extra widths
for passages leading to the center. These small
shrines are oriented in ranks of 18 to face
outward, with the ones at the corners designed
with two orientations

A wall encloses the complex with access gates

on each side

Originally, the whole complex was surrounded

by another perimeter wall, oriented not to the
cardinal directions but northeast and southwest
and measuring about 390 m on a side

It is not certain if this area was a sacred park or

whether it also contained school buildings

Prambanams shrines are articulated as twostorey structures divided by a band of molding

CANDI PRAMBANAM

In about 835 CE, after Samaratungas death, his

young son Balaputras right to accession was
usurped by his sisters father-in-law, Patapan of
Sanjaya

Patapan replaced Buddhism and Hinduism in the

Shailendra kingdom and began the construction
of a series of Hindu temples that was continued
by his son, Rakai Pikaton (or Jatiningrat)

Their profiles are most like those of the

Pallavas
of
southern
India,
which
emphasize slender verticality with distinct
and clear horizontal layers, as in the
Shore Temple

Candi Prambanam, known popularly as Loro

Jonggrang (Slender Virgin) was built around
850 CE

Prambanams two-storied base, however,

is significantly taller than its South Asian
precedents

Three central shrines, facing east, are dedicated

to the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva,
with Shiva at the center

The bulbous profile of the individual

salas, or superstructures, of Prambanam
is also a nod in the direction of
Borobudur, not far away

The plans and tripartite elevational orders

of Hindu and Buddhist structures of
Southeast Asia were probably quite
purposefullyvery similar

The
two
cosmologies
were
articulated in parallel as well

The shrines sit on a platform, accessible from all

four sides

often

EXAMPLES
BANDUNG INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

While the English controlled India and most of the

Chinese trade, the Dutch continued their hold on
Indonesia, in spite of several English and French
attempts to dislodge them

An exemplar of this approach was Ponts design

for the Bandoeng Technische Hoogeschoole
(Bandung Institute of Technology, 1920)

The 20 buildings were laid out crossways to the

sites principal axis in a Beaux-Arts manner

The wood trusses of the buildings were left

exposed on the interiors of the halls in keeping
with the strictures of the Arts and Crafts
movement, while the roof form is a free
interpretation of the traditional Sumatran
Minangkabau roof system found in many
regions of Southeast Asia

The Dutch set production quotas, fixed prices,

restricted travel, and raised taxes under a policy
called the Cultivation System (1830-70)

Their profiles are most like those of the

Pallavas
of
southern
India,
which
emphasize slender verticality with distinct
and clear horizontal layers, as in the
Shore Temple

The Indonesian-born, ethnically Dutch architect

Henri Maclaine Pont was one of the progenitors of
the Indische style

Prambanams two-storied base, however,

is significantly taller than its South Asian
precedents

The bulbous profile of the individual

salas, or superstructures, of Prambanam
is also a nod in the direction of
Borobudur, not far away

The plans and tripartite elevational orders

of Hindu and Buddhist structures of
Southeast Asia were probably quite
purposefullyvery similar

The
two
cosmologies
were
articulated in parallel as well

Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the noted Dutch

architect, characterized the challenge as one of
pulling together the challenge as one of pulling
together the universal qualities of Western
modernism with the local spiritual aesthetic
elements of the East

often

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

TERMINOLOGY
Shikhara

Lingam
Literally, phallus, but also
mark or sign; the symbol for
Shiva

Literally, mountain peak; the

rising tower of north Indian
temples

Gopuram
Shunyata

A monumental tower at the

entrance of south Indian
temples

Nonpresence

Bodhi

Prasada

Perfected wisdom

Literally,
precinct

Vahana

palace;

temple

Pradakshina

Animal vehicles

Circumambulation

Indische Style
An architecture dedicated to the
fusion of Dutch and indigenous
approaches

Garbha-griha
Literally,
womb
innermost sanctum

chamber;

Mandapa
A pillared hall in front of the
temple
and
sometimes
connected to it

Candi
Temple

...I will not make

it big in
Indonesia.

Traditional houses of Indonesia sound so good I think Id like to

pack my bags and leave the city. No
mechanical systems to cool indoor environment, no pests control to
get rid of the mosquitos and termites, and, the coolest thing, people
can get into under the house. I can totally win every hide-and-seek
game.
But most significantly, although bas-reliefs or mandalas or
stilts are not original, I think Indonesian Architecture can boast
about their villages. How can they can build a community that interacts with each other. But I wasnt impressed with the traditional
homes not being 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. I
wasnt impressed because I will not make it big in Indonesia.