TheurbandesignofaBalinesetown:placemakingissuesinthe ...iacenter.ir/uploads/The_urban_design_of_a_Balinese_town.pdfencompasses material objects as well as beliefs, which is particularly

Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

The urban design of a Balinese town: placemaking issues in theBalinese urban setting$

T. Nirarta Samadhi*

Department of City and Regional Planning, National Institute of Technology (ITN Malang), J1. Bendungan Sigura-gura

No. 2, Malang 65145, Indonesia

Received 20 November 2000; received in revised form 9 February 2001; accepted 20 April 2001

Abstract

This research considers the role of indigenous institutions and conceptions of space in the urban designprocess for producing culturally appropriate designs for Balinese towns. Employing a pluralistic approach(The Image of the City, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1960; Planning a Pluralist City: Conflicting Realitiesin Ciudad Guyana, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976; House Form and Culture, Prentice-Hall,Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1969, Human Aspects of the Built Form, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1977), a casestudy of the town of Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia explores the popular accounts on the operative indigenousconceptions of space in contemporary Balinese urban settings. This exploration aims at providing a groundfor reconnecting urban design proposals with their cultural context, thus promoting the spatially expressedlocalism originating from the diversity of cultures which is currently undermined by the highly standardizedprocess of the Indonesian planning system. In particular, for the town of Gianyar, such an explorationprovides a set of placemaking issues which is useful in devising urban design guidelines for achieving a townwith more pronounced cultural identity.

The research concludes that to achieve culturally appropriate places, the design process has toacknowledge the Balinese Hindu psycho-cosmic concept as the core principle in the design of Balinesetownscapes. As such, the existing indigenous cosmic territory, which accommodates the relationshipbetween human (microcosm) and environment (macrocosm), along with its adat law and institution, has tobe incorporated in contemporary urban design processes. As a result, urban spatial organization, structureand form will significantly reflect the Balinese cultural identity. r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rightsreserved.

Keywords: Bali; Culture; Cosmology; Pluralistic; Placemaking

$An earlier version of this paper was submitted to the World Congress on Environmental Design for the NewMillennium, Seoul, South Korea, 9–21 November 2000.

*Corresponding author. Fax: +64-341-553-015.

E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Nirarta Samadhi).

0197-3975/01/$ - see front matter r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 1 9 7 - 3 9 7 5 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 2 4 - 8

1. Introduction

The current situation of urban design in Indonesia is characterized by a highly standardizedprocess imposed by the currently operating planning system. The extent of standardization in theplanning process has been such that it significantly justifies the claim that there is predictableuniformity in the documents of urban designs from Indonesia’s westernmost town of Sabang inAceh to the easternmost town of Merauke in West Papua. Thus they lack the dynamics oflocalism in design that should have been reflected on the account of the existence of localcharacteristics. The other potentially undesirable influence is mainly the Western oriented urbandesign training in Indonesian education institutions which is by and large alien to the Indonesia’sdiversity of cultures. These unfortunate conditions lead to the utter disregard of the diversity ofspatially expressed localism throughout the Indonesian archipelago in the processes, andconsequently, the products, of urban designs. Thus, Indonesian towns are designed in a sort ofway which makes them detached from local cultures and their spatial expression, andconsequently lacking cultural identity. In Bali, one of the world’s favorite tourist destinations,this situation is worsened by the drive to develop the tourism industry, meaning that buildingdesigns and their associated amenities are mainly oriented towards the cultural needs and tastes ofthe paying guests. Inevitably, this planning framework produced culturally alien spaces(Townsend, 1988; Pitana, 1994). In the end, it encourages the desire for traditional culturalheritage to be reflected in contemporary Balinese urban landscapes and promote it globally astheir touristic identity. In this respect, learning from tradition is one of the main placemakingstrategies to achieve a Balinese town which strongly reflects its cultural images, and henceproducing culturally appropriate urban designs.

The production of places and placemaking, in this case is advocated as the urban designstrategy to cope with the above-mentioned desire. Such a claim stems from the concept of placewhich renders the existence of distinct characters in a space generated by local culture and itsoperative customs and traditions (Trancik, 1986). Also from the philosophical notion that place isthe man’s existential space which makes him belong to a social and cultural totality (Norberg-Schulz, 1971). Thus, the adoption of place approach in urban design process will give physicalspace an additional richness by thoughtfully incorporating unique forms and cultural detailsindigenous to its setting.

2. Tradition and cultural constant

The concept of ‘tradition’ is dealt explicitly by Shils (1981) who defines it as ‘that which ishanded down’:

Tradition y includes material objects, beliefs about all sort of things, images of persons, andevents, practices and institutions. It includes buildings, monuments, landscapes, sculptures,paintings, books, tools, machines. It includes all that a society at a given time possesses andwhich already existed when its present possessors came upon it y (p. 12).

This definition emphasizes the continuity of tradition, its persistence in the present time orotherwise it would not be a ‘tradition’. It is also important to note that the concept of tradition

T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575560

encompasses material objects as well as beliefs, which is particularly important if one begins toexamine the implication for such a definition on the built environment. With respect toarchitecture and human settlement, tradition may be defined as ‘the passing down of the elementsof culture’ (Oliver, 1989, pp. 53–54), where, in the case of urban design, ‘elements’ may refer topatterns and principles for manipulating space into built environments.

The need of learning to design and build from others’ experience is espoused by authors as earlyas Vitruvius, who explains that any building more complicated than the simplest shelter must bethe product of both imitation and innovation (Vitruvius, trans. M. H. Morgan, 1960, pp. 38–40).As society’s built environments develop to become more permanent, convenient, and pleasing, itnecessarily must be the unmistakable reflection of the group’s shared expectations, or their culture(Parsons in Murphy (1979, p. 26)). People are known to share a system of expectations, thereforethey probably also share some guiding principles that are inherent within those expectations. It isthis set of essential principles that binds the members of a group and encourages them to committo living together. As such, tradition establishes patterns and generalities that ensures that agroup’s fundamental beliefs are expressed and sustained in and through the built environmentsand thus preserve the culture of the group. The more clearly the built environment reflects theirculture, the more successful those patterns are.

Each culture carries within it over time patterns and generalities that unify and specificities thatdistinguish. These generalities are underlying aspects and features that are evident within thecultural landscapes of a built environment through time, despite contextual changes, and asmentioned previously, are the elements that in part go towards forming a tradition. They are thecultural constants, and are to an extent, unconscious decisions that are taken for granted by thepeople local to the built environment.

In brief, space-manipulating traditions ensure that the complicated task of matching builtenvironment to cultural need is successful and that a society’s environment carries as muchcultural meaning as possible. Traditions can and should change constantly to improve the qualityof the match, especially when the culture itself is changing. Thus, as long as the essential principlesof the culture, hence the cultural constants, are not threatened, existing built environments andtraditions can be helpful to comprehend the new or to assist the process of producing them. Whenthere is no cultural and temporal continuity, the built environment loses its ability to perpetuateits cultural familiarity, thus hindering the people’s effort to make sense of their world or to createtheir existential space, and hence a place.

To illustrate these thoughts, it might be very useful to study the example of Bali, wheretraditions of placemaking seem to survive and, indeed, to have been reinvigorated by innovationdespite rapid modernization. This is possible because the Balinese have a clear idea of what isessential in their life, which is the balance of life. The town of Gianyar, once the seat of the ancientGianyar Kingdom was chosen to be the case to be investigated, and a pluralistic approach(Appleyard, 1976; Lynch, 1960; Rapoport, 1969, 1977) was adopted for the field survey, usingquestionnaires and mental map sketching techniques. Such an approach put the popular accountsas the mechanism to extract current operative values and conceptions, hence the culturalconstants, as the basis of building up localism in spatial planning and design. A sample of 100Balinese Hindu was employed that consisted of three groups, each representing (1) town residentswho were considered most knowledgeable in traditional-religious conceptions of space (15% ofthe respondents), (2) lay residents (70% of the respondents), and (3) residents who were

T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 561

considered most knowledgeable in formal or modern planning concepts (15% of the respondents).Such a division was considered to yield the widest spectrum of popular aspirations in regard to theobjective of accommodating traditional cultural values into the contemporary urban designprocess. In-depth interviews with some key informantsFconsisting of a high priest, head of adatadvisory board, traditional healer and puppeteer (balian and dalang), informal leader fromtraditional palace (puri), and senior planning officerFwere conducted before, during and afterthe field survey for the purposes of developing the questionnaires and subsequently for canvassingmore detailed information as well as reconfirming the findings. With sufficient backgroundto understand the underlying principles of the Balinese culture, it should be possible to evaluatethe urban design strategies for guiding physical development of a Balinese town with the ultimatepurpose of creating a town that strongly projects the appropriate cultural identity.

3. Relevant Balinese traditional-religious conceptions

The Balinese understand that reality shadows the play of sekala (tangible) and niskala(intangible) forces, which are either (or both) generative or (and) degenerative. These forces are inthe state of rwa bhineda, or complementary, rather than opposites. The Balinese recognize thatcreation is no ‘better’ than degeneration, so they do not try to conquer the latter, but they tend toseek an appropriate balance of these forces. In fact, the Balinese’s quest in life is to restore ormaintain a balance of forces in order to achieve the ultimate goal of moksa or spiritual liberation.

The Hindu gods have been adapted in Balinese thoughts to give life and personality to theseforces and their manifestations (see Fig. 1). As such, every object is perceived to address the godsin a unique way, in accordance to its purpose. This interaction with the forces and gods givesevery object life. In this respect, not only is the Balinese supernatural world personified, but alsothe inanimate world as well. Therefore, life is necessarily extended to the built world, fromsettlement to house compound to pavilion, so that they too may help balance these forces.

The forces are kept in a harmonious balance in Balinese architecture and environment byassigning attributes to the Balinese space, creating a matrix that is simultaneously hierarchical inreligion (sacred/profane) and society (reflecting castes and kinship) as well as in physicalarrangement. To move from one place to another in such a ‘cosmic antipodes’1 realm brings alongdifferent meaning at each of these levels of place. For instance, Mt. Agung, the highest mountainlocated approximately in the center of the island, hence the ‘center of the world’ (Swellengrebel,1960; Eiseman, 1990), is the abode of gods, deified ancestors and holy water; therefore, to movetoward this mountain, to kaja,2 is to progress toward the more sacred or socially valued.Conversely, to move down or towards the sea, to kelod,3 is considered a digression toward themore profane. East, as the direction of the rising sun, or kangin, which represents the birth of life,is considered to be more sacred than west, or kauh. However, it should be noted that moresacred directions are not ‘better’ than more profane ones. In other words, it is to find the

1Swellengrebel (1960) provides a comprehensive discussion on such a phenomenon.2Kaja literally means ‘to the interior’, is one of the directions in the Balinese indigenous wind rose.3Kelod literally means ‘to the sea’, is the opposite direction to kaja; therefore, in the southern part of Bali kaja is

translated north while kelod is translated south, however, kaja and kelod are given the opposite translations in the

northern part of Bali.


appropriate relative position for something or action which is considered to be of much greaterimportance.

The concept of center, therefore, is important to the Balinese as it is for most of the SoutheastAsian tribes, not just in religious and cosmological terms but also in political realm (Tambiah,1985). The physical manifestation of the concept of center in the Balinese environment has takenthe form of a ‘grand crossroad’, pampatan agung, in which forces from the first world (bhurloka,the world of the gods) and third world (swahloka, the world of the demons), and from all windrose directions (kaja, kelod, kangin, kauh, and their inter-cardinal directions) meet and are greetedby human beingsFthe dwellers of the second world (bhuwahloka). The important Balinesesettlement’s functions such as the palace ( puri), the temple ( pura), the priest’s house (griya), thepublic meeting hall (wantilan), and the marketplace ( pasar) are thus arranged in the surroundingareas of the crossroad as a way to accumulate the ‘power’Freligious, socio-economics, andpolitical in natureFinto one place4(Fig. 2). As such, this particular crossroad consequentlybecomes a landmark and identity maker for Balinese towns and settlements.5

Fig. 1. Dewata Nawa Sanga. The Balinese indigenous windrose: a center and eight cardinals, represent the ninedifferent forces. The Hindu triad is vertically positioned on the figure: Wisnu, Shiwa and Brahma.

4Nordholt (1991) offers an interesting discussion on the role of a center within the Balinese politics and Hinduism.5Puri or palace of a former Balinese kingdom can be found in seven out of eight major towns in Bali Province, while

puri of a lesser prince/nobleman characterized lesser towns, such as the one which was discussed at length in Nordholt

(1991). Where there is no puri, its place will be occupied by a pura or temple.


Another important concept to understand is the psycho-cosmic concept6 of the relationshipbetween bhuwana agung, or macrocosm and bhuwana alit, or microcosm. Any place in Bali can bedefined by its relative position to other places, and thus it is only understandable as an element ina larger cosmos. At the same time, every place or entity generates its own universe, a microcosm,composed of five basic elements or panca mahabhuta, i.e. pertiwi (earth/solid substance), apah(water/fluid substance), teja (fire/light/heat), bayu (air), and akasa (space/ether). Thus a man setsup his own universe of order, as does the house compound he lives in, and the desa7 beyond thatcompound, and the island of Bali, and finally the world. The ultimate goal of Balinese Hindu,moksa or spiritual liberation, urges that as a bhuwana alit (microcosm) a man should harmonizehimself with the universe as a bhuwana agung (macrocosm), because, as has been mentioned, thehuman body and the universe are originating from the same elements.

The concept of harmonious balance in the philosophy of the Balinese is believed to constitutethe basis for achieving prosperity and welfare which, in its application, has developed andcrystallized into the religious teaching of Tri Hita Karana or literally ‘three causes of goodness’(Kaler, 1983; Surpha, 1991; Pitana, 1994). In architecture and settlement design this teaching isessentially intended to establish a harmonious relations between human beings and the God,

Fig. 2. The center’s elements: a typical center of Balinese major towns (i.e. regency capital towns).

6Within a core-periphery continuum of the Balinese traditional-religious conceptions of space, according to 97% ofthe respondents, the psycho-cosmic concept is the core principle in the manipulation of the Balinese environments and

cultural landscapes.7Desa in Bali is more properly translated into ‘settlement’ than ‘village’ which connotes a rural settlement, since a

desa as a conceptual unit can be found both in urban and rural area. The desa adat or loosely translated into ‘customary

village’ (e.g. Geertz, 1980) is a Balinese territorial unit that exists throughout Bali, thus not only in the rural areas.


human beings and the environment, and human beings among themselves. This concept can beclearly observed in Balinese housing compounds and desa adat8 settlements in the form of (1)spatial zoning, and (2) elements classification. The zoning divides the space into: sacred places( parahyangan), settlement areas ( pawongan) and utilities/settlement supporting functions( palemahan); while the elements classification breaks it into: (1) parahyangan indicated by thethree temples/Tri Kahyangan (representing the relationships between man and God, located onthe sacred part of the area), (2) pawongan takes the form of the dwellers or sima krama desa(representing the relationships among men), and (3) palemahan or settlement territory(representing the relationships between man and the environment). This triad classificationessentially signifies the three elements of Tri Hita Karana, that is the spirit (atma), the energy(prana) and the body/vessel (sarira) which will be found in all kinds of entity in this universe (seeTable 1).

The placement of the three temples of the Tri Kahyangan,9 is very similar to the siting of theeight temples in accordance with the principles of the vastu-widya in Indian towns, whereby thetemples function as a mandala defining and sanctifying the space they enclose (Puri, 1995). In theBalinese case, the spatial area definition by way of the siting of Tri Kahyangan temples create aunit in which its population feel they belong to a bhuwana agung. The defined unit is called a desaadat10 (Kaler, 1983; Surpha, 1991; Pitana, 1994). In this unit the dichotomy of kaja-kelod, ormountainward–seaward and luan-teben or upstream–downstream, and the spatial attributedifferentiation of Tri Angga11 are applicable, thus creating a true symbolically independent spatialunit. In other words, a downstream-located desa adat can find the most sacred end of its arealocated further down to the most profane part of a neighboring desa adat’s area without anydisharmonious effect. Thus, this is contrary to Boon’s assessmentFcommenting on Hobart’s

Table 1Elements of Tri Hita Karana

Container Spirit (atma) Energy (prana) Vessel (sarira)

Universe Paraatman Power to move the universe,

e.g. planetary movement

Panca mahabhuta elements

Village/desa adat Tri Kahyangan or parahyangan Sima krama or pawongan ordwellers/villagers and their

activities

Palemahan or settlement/village territory

House House temple House dwellers Dwelling unit with its yardsHuman being Soul/spirit Energy Body

8Desa means ‘village’, and adat means ‘custom’, thus, although not completely representative desa adat is translatedas ‘customary village’; a rural as well as urban settlement unit bounded by adat law (known as awig-awig) unique to the

island of Bali and Balinese culture. See the preceding footnote.9Consisting of pura puseh (navel temple), pura desa (village temple), and pura dalem (temple of the dead)10Such a bounded space has a more comprehensive meaning to the Balinese than a ‘mythical space’ as has been

defined by Tuan (1977, pp. 85–89): ‘y functions as a component in a worldview or cosmology’.11The spatial quality division according to the Tri Angga principle comprises of utama angga (sacred space), madya

angga (neutral space) and nista angga (profane space). In this respect, a place on the mountain ward (kaja) location, that

is upstream, is deemed sacred against the one located to the sea ward direction, that is downstream (kelod ).


‘connections between ritual purity and the flow of water’Fon a similar situation, in which heimplicitly denies the cosmological independence of a desa adat:

For similar reasons women bathe downstream relative to men. Nor does this fact escapecultural contradiction, even for the upstream men, because the ‘purer’ water they are deemed tomerit is in actuality the downstream outflow of a relatively upstream village area, complete withfemale bathers (Boon, 1990, p. 78)

The spatially and cosmologically cohesive unit of a desa adat is also amplified by the fact thatthe desa dwellers serve a similar temple congregation ( pemaksan) and develop their local valuesand knowledge systems to be formulated in awig-awig (literally ‘customary law’). Seen in thiscontext, as Egenter (1996, p. 215) concludes for the Japanese village, the desa adat becomes anautonomous culture with all traits of a higher culture: harmonious philosophy, local ontology andvalue system, aesthetics, social hierarchy and so forth. Therefore, desa adat is the only Balinesesettlement unit based on traditional-religious spatial conceptions.Tri Hita Karana is equally inspired by the Hinduism belief on the classification of world/

universe in a vertical way. This classification is so important, it is mentioned in the first couplet ofthe most sacred of all formulae or mantra (Puri, 1995). The couplet contains the wording ‘OmBhur Bhuwah Swah y’ which describes the classification of world/universe: bhur loka, the lowestlevel of the universe where demons or bhuta dwell, bhuwah loka or the world of human being, swahloka or the world of deities which is the highest level of the universe. This tripartite division is alsoknown as Tri Loka or literally ‘three worlds’. It is for honoring the dwellers of the three worldsthat the Tri Hita Karana concept in the housing compound and settlement is applied.12

Existence, for both animate and inanimate objects, is a matter of occupying the right space atthe right time; this participation is in fact life. Additionally, for human beings, this conception isrelated to the concept of place as man’s existential space which brings the notion of place as avessel of the man’s participation in the cosmological balancing process. In this respect, the objectas a microcosm must be correctly composed of all its elements, and it must complete its ownlifecycle of gestation, birth, maturation, decay, death, and return to nature. It is critical for theBalinese to assure life (and balance) in everything they come in contact with, so that their entireworld works to perpetuate their way of life. To distort balance or to neglect to bring an object tolife so it can participate is to invite misfortune or disaster.

Fig. 3 summarizes the preceding text and describes the schematic relationships among a numberof relevant Balinese traditional-religious conceptions of space and space-manipulating principles.

4. Case study: the town of Gianyar

The town of Gianyar is the capital of the Regency13 of Gianyar (Kabupaten Gianyar) (Fig. 4),and the seat of the ancient Gianyar Kingdom (1771–1913). Gianyar derives from the Sanskrit

12As quoted from key informants: Anom, Sidja and Wiyana on some interviews (November–December 1998).13The Indonesian system of administration divides Indonesia into provinces ( propinsi), which then breaks down into

regencies (kabupaten) and municipalities (kotamadya), and furthermore into districts (kecamatan), and then into thesmallest administrative unit: sub-districts (kelurahan and desa). In Bali a sub-district (kelurahan and/or desa)Fbeyond

the formal systemFare further divided into desa adat, and then into banjar adat.


Fig. 3. The Balinese traditional-religious conceptions of space. The three sets of sacred characters (aksara), which

merge into Dewata Nawa Sanga, are the symbols of the cosmological balancing process. The orientation axes: sunrise-sunset (kangin-kauh) and mountain-sea (kaja-kelod) are combined to produce a spatial division principle, the SangaMandala.


word griya and anyar which altogether means ‘the new priest’s house’. This is because the palacewas built on an area which was previously owned by a priest (Santoso, 1985,p. 19), although it ismore likely that a new priest’s house was built before the construction of the palace and itsexistence was more popular than the palace in the Balinese Hindu community.

The town is located at about 25 km east of Denpasar. It is situated within the administrativearea of District of Gianyar (Kecamatan Gianyar) which has 15 kelurahan (sub-district), with only 5kelurahan of the district excluded from the urban functional areas which constitute the town ofGianyar (Bappeda Kab. Gianyar, 1988, p. I-2). Each sub-district consists of one or more desaadat, with the town center largely occupying the Kelurahan Gianyar area which in this casecoincides with the territory of Desa Adat Gianyar.

At 126m above sea level and with an area of 4,655 ha, the town is also the center of a regionaladministration that controls seven percent of Bali island’s total area, or nearly 36,500 ha of land.Three rivers framed the town, Tukad Cangkir (the Cangkir river) and Tukad Sungsang (theSungsang river) that lie on the western part of the town whereas Tukad Blahbatuh (the Blahbatuhriver) lies on the eastern part. Their average water surfaces lie 20m below the town plain. Thiscondition is attributed to the topographical characteristic of the town which is sloped from 5% to40%, with the most level part (between 5% and 15%) concentrated on the south and northwestpart of the town. It is only logical that the town’s physical development has mostly occurred inthese more level areas.

According toMonografi Kecamatan Gianyar 1998 (District of Gianyar Monograph, KecamatanGianyar, 1998) the population of Gianyar was 69,828 with an average annual rate of increase of

Fig. 4. Bali Province and the town of Gianyar, Indonesia.


0.62%. The majority of Gianyar’s residents were Hindu (99.15%) and of Balinese descendant(99.9%), thus it seems to be justifiable to conclude that the town of Gianyar is culturallyhomogenous. Primary employment activities showed that Gianyar was an agricultural town with19.5% of its population working as farmers and 34.1% as livestock breeders, whereas the otheremployment activities were merchant/retailers (9%), civil servants (4.9%), and handicraft andother arts producers (7.8%).

5. Cultural constants evident in the town of Gianyar

The elements of the cultural landscapes that constitute a continuing tradition in placemaking inthe town of Gianyar were identified from the questionnaires and sketched mental maps. Theresearch enumerated twenty-six cultural constants that seemed to have reflected the unconsciousdecisions and choices made by the town’s residents. By grouping them into a number of themes,namely (1) the cosmological relationships; (2) the cosmological physical representation; (3) thecosmological space organization; (4) the cosmological space management; and (5) thecosmological meanings and symbols, they were synthesized into five mainstreams culturalconstants, which reflect the residents’ attitude towards their living environments and spatialdesign. Consequently, cultural constants would be instrumental in future development of urbandesign objectives, which as has been shown in this research to have produced a culturallyappropriate Balinese urban places. Those mainstream constants are:

5.1. Attitude to human beingFenvironment relationships

Relating to the Balinese Hindu psycho-cosmic concept, the Balinese notion of human-environment relationship is one of maintaining harmonious balance between the microcosm(human) and the macrocosm (environment). Human beings attain this balance by conductingtheir lives in accordance to the Balinese Hindu conceptions within the confinement of a cosmicterritorial system (the desa adat, or literally ‘customary village’)14 with its bounding awig-awigdesa adat (desa adat’s customary law). This parallelism between the microcosm and themacrocosm necessitates the practice of ritual ceremonies to maintain harmony between the worldof the gods and the world of human beings.

For the Balinese, such a system is constructed around the relationship between man andenvironment ( palemahan), man and God ( parahyangan), and among men ( pawongan), which wasessentially articulated into the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana or ‘three causes of goodness’. Anyirregularity in the cosmic order caused by the disruption of these tripartite relationships couldonly be interpreted as misfortunes.

5.2. The concept of center

The notion of the center for the Balinese is one of beginning, origin. In built form it does notnecessarily mean the geometric center of a region (or a cosmic territory) but more one of an

14For instance, a man always belongs to a desa adat even though he resides permanently outside this desa adat oreven outside Bali. In such a case, he is expected to pay his due for adat-related rituals as well as pay homage to the

village temple on the temple anniversary ceremony (piodalan).


existential center. The center is also considered as the symbolic materialization of the BalineseHindu quest for cosmological balance, a special place where forcesFfrom the first world(bhurloka) or third world (swahloka)Ffrom all directions meet and are greeted by humanbeingsFfrom the second world (bhuwahloka)Fwith religious rituals. Thus it is like the concept of‘habitabilis’ (Wheatley, 1971), where a fixed point (village, town, or territory of a specific group)took its birth by being cosmicized, hence its habitation was sanctioned.

To this end, the Balinese designated a particular spatial organization of land uses around amain crossroad, as the physical representation of the center, known as the pampatan agung, forthe purpose of the fulfilling of such a role. On such a phenomenon, Wheatley (1971, p. 418)concludes:

From this point, the holy of holiest at whichever hierarchical level might occur, the fourhorizons were projected outwards to the cardinal points of the compass, thus assimilating thegroup’s territory, whether tribal land, kingdom, or city, to the cosmic order, and constructing asanctified space or habitabilis.

Thus, in relation to the attitude toward human-environment relationship, the Balinese notion oftheir landscape is one of inwardness. In other words, a cosmic territory is an individual unitwhich, when combined with other similar units, will form a bigger settlement which normativelyand functionally is called a town. In practice, however, sometimes irregularities in culturallandscapes could be found from one locale to another which can be explained as the localapplication of the relevant traditional-religious regulations. However, the dictum desa mawa caraor literally ‘a settlement has its own rules’, addressed by any desa adat’s customary law, perfectlydescribes this phenomenon.

5.3. Attitude to spatial organization

The notion of spatial organization in Balinese tradition is in accordance with the spatialcontinuity between the two extremes of the sacred and the profane. As such, the Balinesespace, within the framework of a cosmic territory, is organized on the basis of the assignedattributes of space. The land use and settlement function configurations are the result of aworldview or local compass cardinal (luan-teben, kaja-kelod and kangin-kauh) that evolve fromthe translation of each local situation (desa-kala-patra or ‘place-time-situation’ dictum) into a setof principles of organization. Such a framework can be seen as reflecting the principles of spatialdivision known as the Tri Angga (the three-fold division) and the Sanga Mandala15 (the nine-folddivision).

5.4. Attitude to environmental design

Referring to the attitude of human being-environment relationship, the Balinese notion ofenvironmental design is one of an effort to harmonize the relationship between human beings andtheir environment. In this respect the dweller of a cosmic territory,a desa adat,is obliged toparticipate in the processes of environmental design to ensure that his aspirations are accounted

15See Fig. 3.


for and are in compatible relationship with others’. Thus, the participation exercise is a vehicle toestablish a common goal for the whole community (sima krama desa) in manipulating theirenvironment or cosmic territory ( palemahan desa) within the framework of the traditional-religious regulations ( parahyangan desa). The Balinese utilizes the public meeting (sangkep orparuman desa adat16) mechanism to establish such a common goal.

5.5. Attitude to symbols and meanings

The Balinese tradition is a tradition of myth and symbol. The organization of a cosmicterritory’s elements configuration as a result of cosmoreligious beliefs evolves from the translationof phenomena into a symbol system. The symbol system expresses these beliefs by abstracting andtranslating them into principles of organization. The organization is seen as, for example: (a) acosmic diagram (such as in the Sanga Mandala spatial organization); (b) a path of life (such as inthe organization of the center’s elements and the ritual of tawur kesanga17); and (c) a center of theuniverse (such as in the construction of the pampatan agung).

6. The town of Gianyar’s placemaking issues

Against the backdrop of the cultural homogeneity of Bali Island and similarity among thecultural landscapes of Balinese towns and settlements, the placemaking issues generated by thosecultural constants observed in the town of Gianyar should not be dissimilar to those of otherBalinese towns and settlements. Apart from the natural (e.g. rivers and land contours) and man-made functional features (e.g. street network), in the context of urban design in the town ofGianyar, the cultural constants uncovered have indeed constituted the determinants of the townstructure, or town form-giving elements. They are either a three-dimensional object or abstractconception with such dominance that they force a particular shape of physical development.These form-giving elements in the town of Gianyar, and perhaps in most towns and settlements inBali as well, are natural and functional as well as culturalFand most particularlyFcosmological.

In the latter case, which corresponds with the research theme, the mainstream culturalconstants generate a number of town form determinants as follows:

1. The attitude to human being–environment relationship combined with the attitude to symbolsand meanings assign the cosmological unit of desa adat and its elements as one of thedeterminants, in this respect the elements are the territory (palemahan), the triad temples of TriKahyangan (parahyangan) and the dwellers (pawongan), or in other words, the embodiment ofthe Tri Hita Karana philosophy.

2. The concept of center coupled with the attitude to symbols and meanings assign pampatan

agung or the great crossroad, being the center of the settlement and its elements: puri

16Sangkep desa adat or adat village assembly, attended by family heads, are held every month, at the pura puseh or at

the assembly hall (bale agung) nearby, during which matters of both ritual and secular importance are addressed.17A ritual of village or town cleansing, conducted in conjunction with NyepiFwhen all of the Balinese Hindu take a

day of complete inactivity, thus contemplating at homeFone day before the celebration of the most important ritual of

the Balinese new Caka year.


(traditional palace), pampatan agung (grand crossroad), lapangan (plain grassy open space witha number of banyan trees), and so forth as one of the determinants.

3. Attitude toward spatial organization combined with the attitude to symbols and meaningsassign the Sanga Mandala principle of cosmological space division and the related conceptionsof luan-teben dichotomy: Tri Angga, kaja-kelod, and kangin-kauh as one of the determinants.

These are important considerations in placemaking strategy in the design processes of Bali’surban areas in which the dominant characteristics project the attributes of fixedness andpermanency. The functional form-giving elements such as street structure, parks, and open spaceswill be covered in the above elements since to some extent they are derivation of those cultural-related elements. The following text details the qualities of the form-giving elements in the studyarea.

6.1. The desa adat

The desa adat possesses two cultural elements which define the town form. First, its TriKahyangan temples define the boundary of the cosmic as well as functional territory of a desaadat. In the town of Gianyar which lies to the south of Mt. Agung thus, it is located in southernpart of BaliFthe pura desa, the village temple, marks the most northern end of its territory as adesa adat, while pura dalem, the temple of the dead, marks the southernmost end of its territory.18

As both temples represent the most sacred and most profane areas in the territory respectively,there should be no built-up area beyond these border marks of the desa adat boundary. Second, itsluan-teben or upstream–downstream spatial dichotomy designates the land uses and functionlocations according to the sacred-profane continuum.

Equally important to the above mentioned elements, if not the most, is the fact that desa adatembodies the Balinese Hindu quest of restoring and/or maintaining harmonious balance betweenlevels of cosmoses formulated in the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana. In this case, it provides theframework within which could be conducted the ritual necessary to ensure that intimate harmonybetween the microcosm and macrocosm without which, as Wheatley (1971, p. 418) puts it, ‘ythere could be no prosperity in the world of men’. Coupled with the fact that a desa adat has asubstantial area with definitive boundaries, socio-economic networks, and substantial popula-tionFthe features required for urban planning and design activitiesFit makes appropriate toinstall a desa adat as the only cosmic territory suitable to act as an urban design area. Thepresence of this definable unit, as Alexander (1977) has noted, form the basis of strong, supportivecommunities within the confines of the city at large, hence a precursor of a livable city. From thispoint of view, an urban design process which utilizes a desa adat as its design framework willessentially reflect the Balinese quest for their religious goal and cultural lifestyle.

Additionally, the participation of the members of the desa adat become an inseparablemechanism in such urban design processes since the quest is one of a personal business as well as acollective concern. In this respect, it goes in similar direction with the claim that places can only bebest achieved through participatory placemaking process, since local people often have ideas ofhow their town should look and feel (Hall, 1990; Punter & Carmona, 1997).

18 In the northern Bali desa adat, the temple of the dead marks the northernmost areas of the desa adat.


6.2. The center’s elements

Among the center’s elements, three are given a considerable recognition as the recurringelements of the town’s cultural landscapes, and therefore constituting a set of cultural heritage. Inthis respect, their existence in spatial context will determine the rest of the town form. The firstelement is the crossroad, the pampatan agung, which possesses a ritual role in the Balinesecosmoreligious belief system including as the place for accommodating the necessary ritualprocessions. Thus its scale and function has to be maintained within the range of human-to local-scale. The second element is the palace, the Puri Gianyar (Gianyar Palace), which is considered asa historic conservation object and a means to maintain a cultural as well as temporal continuity.As such its physical appearance will determine the surrounding buildings’ form and massing (i.e.height, mass, bulk, setback, and so on). The third element is the plain open space, the alun-alun orlapangan, which will determine the solid-void composition of the whole design of the townscape.

6.3. The Sanga Mandala

The Sanga Mandala divides the desa adat territory as an urban design area into nine space withdifferent cultural-religious attributes ranging from the most sacred (the utamaning utama space) tothe most profane (the nistaning nista space). Consequently, the town’s land uses and functionlocation within this cosmic territory will be determined by these principles of spatial division. Inan exercise of land use designation and plotting of function locations,19 the respondentsschematically described the culturally ideal situation of their respective urban environmentsaccording to this traditional-religious principle in Table 2.

The center’s elements discussed impinged upon the forces that shape the development pattern ofthe case study area. It could be argued that other such elements of fixedness may exist in differentparts of the Island of Bali that similarly indicated the dominance of the Balinese Hindu beliefs onthe island. There may be locales where geographical features come into effect, where the dictumdesa-kala-patra would seem to come to the fore. However, whatever the element, it is the degree offixedness and their cultural importance which establish its strength as a form-giving element.

Table 2Land uses designation according to the Sanga Mandala principlea

Nistaning Utama space:hospital, medical practices

Madyaning Utama space:police station, hospital, government offices,

education facilities, chemist/drugstore

Utamaning Utama space:temple, cultural center, museum

Nistaning Madya space:chemist/drugstore, handicraftindustries

Madyaning Madya space:private offices, entertainment facilities,shops, parking areas, housing, park

Utamaning Madya space:

Nistaning Nista space:hospital, cemetery, maternal facilities,garbage dump, handicraft industries

Madyaning Nista space:housing, public transportation terminal,military facilities

Utamaning Nista space:marketplace

aSource: respondents’ perceptions collected in the field survey in Gianyar (1998–1999).

19The classification of urban land uses and functions is based upon the currently operative Indonesian Urban

Planning Standard.


7. Conclusion

In the practical realm, the Indonesian urban planning and design administrative and legalprocedures suggest a centralized system in which the local government runs the national planningmodelFi.e. how to present the planning document, to evaluate the plan implementation, and thelikeFin such precise detail, that local diversity and institutions are ignored.20 Severe lack ofcompetent planners and urban designers in the local planning boards, especially outside the islandof Java, is partly to blame for this centralized system which aims to assist the local governments inpreparing their urban and regional spatial plans. Such being the case, urban design has beenreduced into a mere bureaucratic process that manufactures codified design products based onnational model rather than generates a product of substance and relevance. Although thelegislation urges local initiatives to devise the procedures, it appears that the existing bureaucratictradition undermined such an effort. This tradition has influenced the way Indonesian urbanplanners and designers assess their projects, thus they are not accustomed or ready to include localplanning knowledge systems, institutions and diversity, as well as popular participation, in theprocess.21 It is, therefore, necessary for the Indonesian planning system to be re-oriented so as toaccommodate the vast array of existing spatio-cultural diversity throughout the Indonesianarchipelago.

The preceding texts have identified and explicated some placemaking issues in Balinese urbandesign. However to move forward to the next stage of applying the knowledge to urban designprocesses so as to achieve the objective of establishing culturally appropriate places, that isBalinese towns that unmistakably project appropriate cultural identity, an attempt should bemade to systematically define the interrelationship between the design objectives (e.g. access,compatibility, identity, livability) and form determinants. Such an attempt will result in theformulation of urban design concepts that could productively serve as the fundamental basis indevising urban design guidelines for achieving culturally appropriate Balinese towns.

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