Constructing a Sense of “Pastness”: New Built Heritage in Indonesia’s Riau Islands

• In Event: An Architecture under Influence? Building between the Local and the Global and across the Colonial and the Postcolonial in Southeast Asia

Abstract

In the decades following independence from the Dutch, the Indonesian state adopted International Modernism to represent the nation and its global and 'modern' aspirations. During the Suharto presidency, International Modernism fell out of favor in state architecture and was replaced by a variety of architectural idioms. Most visibly, two key styles emerged: an international corporate style characterized by steel and glass towers or placeless concrete structures, and a hybrid style derived from an amalgamation of indigenous, most notably Javanese, sources. Since the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the emergence of desentralisasi, provinces have far greater autonomy and have sought to enhance aspects of provincial identity. In the context of Riau Islands Province, a new province created in 2004, the pivot away from the national has brought about a prioritization of local 'heritage' in various spheres of life including education, the arts and the built environment. This paper examines the cultural politics of several new architectural projects in the provincial capital of Tanjungpinang that have been created in the past decade in Riau Islands Province, all of which are intended to evoke local heritage and foster local cultural and religious identity. I examine how these projects are influenced by local political, racial and religious forces, the ways in which these projects selectively draw on the past, and who benefits and who is marginalized from them.

Author

• Sarah Moser, McGill University