Characterization of the problem and scientific objectives
The cultural meanings and values of buildings and built environments under conditions of
change represent a problem that concerns, first of all, those who inhabit the respective
spaces. However, this problem also embraces those who build and organize these spaces,
builders and planners, and those who study them, historians of architecture, geographers,
sociologists and anthropologists. As the workshop is conceived in the framework of a
larger project to be realized mainly by a collaboration between anthropologists,
sociologists, and architects, the emphasis will be on architectural, sociological, and
anthropological approaches to the subject. In each of the respective fields the question of
meanings and values of built forms has always been an important issue, but it may be said
that too often it has been treated without much consideration for the impact of change.
Architectural symbolism, for instance, is usually discussed only at the synchronic level
and described as if it were not, or only to some small extent, subject to change in time.
In the theory of architecture this has a very long tradition, which in Europe goes back to
the Roman architect Vitruvius who had the habit of quoting myths and legends to explain
the meaning of certain elements of the Greek "orders". We know, however, partly even
from Vitruvius' own work, that opinions about the interpretation of such meanings were
by no means unanimous, even in antiquity. In modern anthropology, the reference may be
to myths and legends, with the addition of rituals, but perhaps more common are
explanations drawn simply from local informants or derived from the traditional names of
the spaces and elements of a building. Only rarely are divergent opinions of local
individuals or differences in past and present interpretations recorded and discussed in
publications. Similar conditions prevail in the study of other aspects of architectural
semantics and with regard to values. In a sense this is even more disturbing, because even
more salient, is the fact that the buildings and settlements of an ethnic group are often
discussed as if their physical aspect could be sufficiently represented by a rough sketch of
only one or two examples. In reality the comparison of buildings within a single village
often reveals significant differences in form and construction, suggesting that diachronic
change, is an important factor here that deserves to be studied more seriously.
In short, the category of change, which plays such a great part in the processes of
modernization now at work in Indonesia, has not yet received sufficient attention in the
discussion of the structures that form the built environments of the respective ethnic
groups.
The scientific objectives of the workshop will be to improve this situation by focusing the
combined attention of a number of scholars on this important, hitherto neglected,
problem.
Organizing institution
The workshop will be organized by the Institute of Cultural and Social Studies of Leiden
University, under the direction of Prof. R. Schefold.
The institute is presently engaged on a four-year research project titled "Design and
Meaning of Architecture and Space among Ethnic Groups of Western Indonesia". This
project is to be realized in cooperation with counterparts from various Indonesian
universities.
In the framework of this project, the initiators of the workshop are Prof. R. Schefold
(cultural anthropology of Indonesia), Dr. P. Nas (urban sociology of Indonesia), and G.
Domenig, dipl.arch.ETH (vernacular architecture of Indonesia).
Homepage
IIAS Newsletter
IIASN-6
ESF News