THE CIVIL ENGINEER

From the 17th century to the end of World War II, the Indonesian identity was that of a Dutch colony, an extension of the Netherlands. In fact, the name for Indonesia while under the Dutch administration, Netherlands Indie, translates to “the Netherlands that lies in the Indie.” Architecturally, Indonesia was not a virgin land when the Dutch came. Its architectural tradition and heritage contrasted greatly with western architecture in general, and Dutch architecture in particular. The Dutch imported their building types and construction methods to Indonesia, and in fact when colonizing bureaucracies matured, the buildings themselves were designed in the Netherlands, materials were shipped to Indonesia, and constructed under Dutch supervision (and probably at the hands of a Dutch or Chinese master mason or master carpenter) (Fig. 1). This imported architecture was consciously as similar to Neo-Classical architecture built in the Netherlands as possible.