CONSTRUCTING DEMOCRATIC SPACE : THE TRANSFORMATION OF HOTEL INDONESIA ROUNDABOUT DURING 3 �POST INDEPENDENCE �S PERIODS

Abstract

In many postcolonial cities, architecture and urban design are set out to create national identity and emphasize a political power that departs from the former of colonial rule. It may be used by successive postcolonial regimes to compete with each other to legitimize authority and symbolize power. Over the time, the places may be used and interpreted in ways that diverge from what is intended. This paper is aimed to gain understanding about the space, which was constructed by the community. To review the space including the events, which was, happened there through time, involving the human, time and activities at the place itself and how that events later transforming the meaning of the place then establish a new image of the place. To achieved the objectives, this paper examines the role of Hotel Indonesia Roundabout as the study case, and analyze how it meanings and uses have been transformed under 3-post independence’s periods. It deals with the establishment and the ongoing transformation of national identity embedded in it. The study traces the transformation of Hotel Indonesia roundabout under Soekarno regime when he established a postcolonial national identity through urban forms. It then outlines the transformation of meaning and use under Soeharto regime and then the Reformation Era. It explores how such place and forms embody national identity and political capital; and how it mediates practices of oppression, resistance, liberation and democracy. It explained that Hotel Indonesia Roundabout exemplifies one of the strong democratic spaces in Indonesia, and its transformation was an expression of different approaches by different regimes and spatial practices over time. It concludes that through the study case, we gained the understanding how the space constructed by the community and how the shift of meaning formed through the involvement of the community and events from time to time, which affect the pattern of space.