What Bungalows Can Tell

On the impact of Dutch colonialism on Indonesian architecture

This book presents new perspectives on Dutch colonial architecture in Indonesia, focusing on the village of Kaliurang (a region of Yogyakarta). What Bungalows Can Tell addresses the conflicts around growing tourism and gentrification processes, and their effects on the quality and continuity of local ways of life, aiming to critically understand the spatial effects of globalization and heritage formation on a local scale. The authors’ research looks specifically at the colonial bungalows of Kaliurang and the stories around them, questioning how they were used in the past, what their function is today and what they can represent in the future. In doing so, this book seeks to take into account the colonial history of the village, while also bringing to the fore the voices, stories and local wisdoms often eclipsed by more prominent forms of Western knowledge production. Tracing a variety of historical and contemporary influences on local architecture–including cosmological symbolism, Javanese mythology and heritage-preserving infrastructure–this publication records an enduring, lively coexistence somewhere between a heritage site and a local neighborhood.