PERPLEXING DISCOURSE OF INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURAL IDENTITY: AN UNDERSTANDING OF CONTEMPORARY NUSANTARAN ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

The term ‘Nusantara’, which literary means ‘the archipelago’, has been revisited and adopted in a newly emerging terminology of ‘Nusantaran architecture’. This new term is widely accepted among Indonesian architects and scholars as an alternative direction of Indonesian architectural identity and is currently employed by the Indonesian government as a centrepiece of the national tourism strategies. The notion is being challenged as it is considered as vouge and problematic in many fundamental aspects, and the necessity to use this term as the county’s identity representation is also being questioned since it may fall short into superficiality and end into commodification. This paper scrutinizes the perplexity behind contemporary Nusantaran architecture as Indonesia’s widely celebrated exclamation. Focusing on scholarly discussion, this paper aims to investigate both sides of supporting and opposing arguments, to get a more comprehensive understanding of the discourse Indonesian architectural identity

Keywords

• Nusantaran architecture,Indonesian architecture,architectural identity

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