Conflicts, Contestations, and Dominations of the City - The Story of Colonization – Decolonization of Bandung (Indonesia) Dr. Johannes Widodo Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566, Republic of Singapore Phone +65-68748862, Fax +65-67793078 E-mail: akijw@nus.edu.sg , URL: http://www.geocities.com/johannes_widodo Abstract The city’s morphology is a manifestation of politics, a stage for the history of power play, and a symbolization of ideology – in its three layers: morphologic (form, space, structure), sociologic (functions, activities, mechanisms), and spirit (meaning, philosophy, ideology). Bandung is the best example of modern Dutch colonial town planning, urban design, and architecture in the tropics; planned as the capital of Dutch-East-Indies in 1930s; the model for other modern colonial cities in Indonesia; and best example of implementation of the Garden City concept in the tropics. It is the home of the largest collection of Art-Deco buildings in Southeast Asia and some best examples of “Indies- Tropical Style” (or “Indo-European Style” with strong Art Deco flavor) of modern Architecture in Asia. Bandung rose onto the world stage as the venue for 1 st Asia-Africa Conference and the announcement of “The Bandung Declaration” to form the Non-Aligned movement (“Non-Block” countries) in 1955. Started from early 19 th century as a colonial town – a town created out of jungle at the middle of “Groote- postweg” by Daendels – as an administrative centre of plantations in Priangan highland region; it was soon growing into a pleasure haven for the European planters, a fast growing town of opportunities for the Chinese entrepreneurs, and a increasingly marginalized native kampong enclaves. At the peak of colonial period in 1920s, the city was planned to be the capital of Nederlands Indie – the ultimate symbol of colonial authority, commerce, culture – but at the same time it became the architectural laboratory for a new breed of modernism, the “Indies-Tropical Style” which embraced local traditions and mixed it with European rationalism. Bandung – or romantically known as “Parijs van Java” – was the best representation of Dutch colonialism in the tropics. During the transition period from the declaration of independence in 1945 until the 1960s, Bandung was caught at the middle of conflicts and uprisings, such as Westerling putsch and Darul Islam rebellion, which led the city into the state of dilapidation, illegal occupation of green spaces, densification of kampong areas, and chaotic un-planned development. Interestingly since 1920s and peaked in 1950s Bandung was obtained a new meaning as the graveyard of colonialism, where Soekarno used it to stage his powerful decolonization blows: his intellectual development in Bandung’s Technische Hogeschool, his defiance in the colonial court in Bandung’s Landraad, and finally his choice of venue for the Asia Africa Conference in 1955 in Concordia club at the heart of the colonial capital city of Bandung.