MEDAN MERDEKA JAKARTA AS THE CONTESTATION ARENA OF POWER THROUGH ARCHITECTURE AND THE MEANING OF PLACE: HISTORICAL STUDY OF 1945—2020

• Main Author: Dwika Aprilian, Rizki
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Arsitektur
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/55036
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Architecture and power are things that are difficult to separate because they have a longstanding relationship. Not only as a way for humans to fulfill their basic needs in living, but architecture also acts as a tool for humans to express and actualize their power in spatial. This principle is then applied to the planning of the built environment, starting from the building, public space, and broader city scale. As a result, urban spaces are often filled with symbols of power from the government or ruler. It can be read from the design of government buildings, the central government area's design, and the nation's capital city. This phenomenon could be found in every country, also Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia (especially in the Medan Merdeka Area Jakarta, which becomes the center of the capital city to run the government, both in the central and regional levels). Medan Merdeka is an open space covering eighty hundred hectares that records a long story of the change of power that has taken place in the center of the capital for a long time. The land which was opened in the 18th century by the Dutch East Indies Government continued to change its name, form, and function due to changes in the policies of alternating power holders. Medan Merdeka is also a silent witness to various important events that the Indonesian nation underwent after seizing its independence in 1945 and continues to the present day. Along with the times, the Medan Merdeka Jakarta area continues to experience several changes, both in the architectural appearance of the buildings around the National Monument and the function of open spaces that adjusted to the needs of current society. Medan Merdeka was transformed into a parchment (or palimpsest) of the built environment. It is written repeatedly by architectural traces from the era of power in different times but can be traced and arranged chronologically what kind of superimposition. The long journey of the fostered environment of the Medan Merdeka Area as the location of the central government of the Republic of Indonesia in the past 75 years has prompted the author to take this theme as the object of research.This study intends to discuss how a regime or power holders perceive and interpret Medan Merdeka through its understanding/values, representing it in spatial forms found in Medan Merdeka Jakarta. Besides, this research also wants to explore further the contestation of power - as a response to the change of rulers that occurs at any time – which implemented through redefinition, continuation, and even negation of previous values, meanings, and functions that occurred in Medan Merdeka Jakarta for 75th year of Indonesian independence. The case study proposals put forward in this research are the entire built environment area in the Medan Merdeka Park (including monuments, statues, and green open spaces) and significant buildings in the Medan Merdeka buffer zone (four main boulevards which border the Medan Merdeka Park). This following the boundaries set and described in the central government regulation through Presidential Decree Number 25 of 1995 concerning the Development of the Medan Merdeka Area in the Capital Region of Jakarta. This historical research was conducted using the diachronic-synchronic method, which involved four procedures: heuristics, source-criticism verification (internal and external), information synthesis, and analysis and interpretation repositioning discourses or narratives about Medan Merdeka. These data sources are including primary and secondary sources. Primary sources consist of photos, videos, maps, articles, speeches, magazines, books, and newspapers from the specific period that collected from the National Library, National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), also digital archive-based service providers. Primary sources also consist of direct interviews and citations from the planners and policymakers of Medan Merdeka. The secondary sources including direct survey and interview with historians. The author hopes that this research can become a documentation of architectural history, criticism, as well as a discourse in reinterpreting the values and narratives related to the Medan Merdeka Jakarta built environment in the present context, amid the government's agenda to move the Indonesian capital city (IKN) from Jakarta to Penajam and Paser Utara districts in East Kalimantan.