The Urban Design of a Balinese Town: Placemaking Issues in the Balinese Urban Setting$ T

Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

The urban design of a Balinese town: placemaking issues in the Balinese 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 design process 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 Realities in 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 case study of the town of Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia explores the popular accounts on the operative indigenous conceptions of space in contemporary Balinese urban settings. This exploration aims at providing a ground for reconnecting urban design proposals with their cultural context, thus promoting the spatially expressed localism originating from the diversity of cultures which is currently undermined by the highly standardized process of the Indonesian planning system. In particular, for the town of Gianyar, such an exploration provides a set of placemaking issues which is useful in devising urban design guidelines for achieving a town with more pronounced cultural identity. The research concludes that to achieve culturally appropriate places, the design process has to acknowledge the Balinese Hindu psycho-cosmic concept as the core principle in the design of Balinese townscapes. As such, the existing indigenous cosmic territory, which accommodates the relationship between human (microcosm) and environment (macrocosm), along with its adat law and institution, has to be incorporated in contemporary urban design processes. As a result, urban spatial organization, structure and form will significantly reflect the Balinese cultural identity. r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bali; Culture; Cosmology; Pluralistic; Placemaking

$An earlier version of this paper was submitted to the World Congress on Environmental Design for the New Millennium, Seoul, South Korea, 9–21 November 2000. *Corresponding author. Fax: +64-341-553-015. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Nirarta Samadhi).

1. Introduction

The current situation of urban design in Indonesia is characterized by a highly standardized process imposed by the currently operating planning system. The extent of standardization in the planning process has been such that it significantly justifies the claim that there is predictable uniformity in the documents of urban designs from Indonesia’s westernmost town of Sabang in Aceh to the easternmost town of Merauke in West Papua. Thus they lack the dynamics of localism in design that should have been reflected on the account of the existence of local characteristics. The other potentially undesirable influence is mainly the Western oriented urban design training in Indonesian education institutions which is by and large alien to the Indonesia’s diversity of cultures. These unfortunate conditions lead to the utter disregard of the diversity of spatially expressed localism throughout the Indonesian archipelago in the processes, and consequently, the products, of urban designs. Thus, Indonesian towns are designed in a sort of way which makes them detached from local cultures and their spatial expression, and consequently 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 building designs and their associated amenities are mainly oriented towards the cultural needs and tastes of the paying guests. Inevitably, this planning framework produced culturally alien spaces (Townsend, 1988; Pitana, 1994). In the end, it encourages the desire for traditional cultural heritage to be reflected in contemporary Balinese urban landscapes and promote it globally as their touristic identity. In this respect, learning from tradition is one of the main placemaking strategies to achieve a Balinese town which strongly reflects its cultural images, and hence producing culturally appropriate urban designs. The production of places and placemaking, in this case is advocated as the urban design strategy to cope with the above-mentioned desire. Such a claim stems from the concept of place which renders the existence of distinct characters in a space generated by local culture and its operative customs and traditions (Trancik, 1986). Also from the philosophical notion that place is the 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 physical space an additional richness by thoughtfully incorporating unique forms and cultural details indigenous to its setting.

2. Tradition and cultural constant

The concept of ‘tradition’ is dealt explicitly by Shils (1981) who defines it as ‘that which is handed down’: Tradition y includes material objects, beliefs about all sort of things, images of persons, and events, practices and institutions. It includes buildings, monuments, landscapes, sculptures, paintings, books, tools, machines. It includes all that a society at a given time possesses and which 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 or otherwise it would not be a ‘tradition’. It is also important to note that the concept of tradition T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 561 encompasses material objects as well as beliefs, which is particularly important if one begins to examine the implication for such a definition on the built environment. With respect to architecture and human settlement, tradition may be defined as ‘the passing down of the elements of culture’ (Oliver, 1989, pp. 53–54), where, in the case of urban design, ‘elements’ may refer to patterns and principles for manipulating space into built environments. The need of learning to design and build from others’ experience is espoused by authors as early as Vitruvius, who explains that any building more complicated than the simplest shelter must be the 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, it necessarily 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, therefore they probably also share some guiding principles that are inherent within those expectations. It is this set of essential principles that binds the members of a group and encourages them to commit to living together. As such, tradition establishes patterns and generalities that ensures that a group’s fundamental beliefs are expressed and sustained in and through the built environments and thus preserve the culture of the group. The more clearly the built environment reflects their culture, the more successful those patterns are. Each culture carries within it over time patterns and generalities that unify and specificities that distinguish. These generalities are underlying aspects and features that are evident within the cultural landscapes of a built environment through time, despite contextual changes, and as mentioned previously, are the elements that in part go towards forming a tradition. They are the cultural constants, and are to an extent, unconscious decisions that are taken for granted by the people local to the built environment. In brief, space-manipulating traditions ensure that the complicated task of matching built environment to cultural need is successful and that a society’s environment carries as much cultural meaning as possible. Traditions can and should change constantly to improve the quality of the match, especially when the culture itself is changing. Thus, as long as the essential principles of the culture, hence the cultural constants, are not threatened, existing built environments and traditions can be helpful to comprehend the new or to assist the process of producing them. When there is no cultural and temporal continuity, the built environment loses its ability to perpetuate its cultural familiarity, thus hindering the people’s effort to make sense of their world or to create their existential space, and hence a place. To illustrate these thoughts, it might be very useful to study the example of Bali, where traditions of placemaking seem to survive and, indeed, to have been reinvigorated by innovation despite rapid modernization. This is possible because the Balinese have a clear idea of what is essential in their life, which is the balance of life. The town of Gianyar, once the seat of the ancient Gianyar 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, using questionnaires and mental map sketching techniques. Such an approach put the popular accounts as the mechanism to extract current operative values and conceptions, hence the cultural constants, as the basis of building up localism in spatial planning and design. A sample of 100 Balinese Hindu was employed that consisted of three groups, each representing (1) town residents who were considered most knowledgeable in traditional-religious conceptions of space (15% of the respondents), (2) lay residents (70% of the respondents), and (3) residents who were 562 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 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 the objective of accommodating traditional cultural values into the contemporary urban design process. In-depth interviews with some key informantsFconsisting of a high priest, head of adat advisory board, traditional healer and puppeteer (balian and dalang), informal leader from traditional palace (puri), and senior planning officerFwere conducted before, during and after the field survey for the purposes of developing the questionnaires and subsequently for canvassing more detailed information as well as reconfirming the findings. With sufficient background to understand the underlying principles of the Balinese culture, it should be possible to evaluate the urban design strategies for guiding physical development of a Balinese town with the ultimate purpose 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 in the state of rwa bhineda, or complementary, rather than opposites. The Balinese recognize that creation is no ‘better’ than degeneration, so they do not try to conquer the latter, but they tend to seek an appropriate balance of these forces. In fact, the Balinese’s quest in life is to restore or maintain 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 these forces and their manifestations (see Fig. 1). As such, every object is perceived to address the gods in a unique way, in accordance to its purpose. This interaction with the forces and gods gives every object life. In this respect, not only is the Balinese supernatural world personified, but also the inanimate world as well. Therefore, life is necessarily extended to the built world, from settlement 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 by assigning attributes to the Balinese space, creating a matrix that is simultaneously hierarchical in religion (sacred/profane) and society (reflecting castes and kinship) as well as in physical arrangement. To move from one place to another in such a ‘cosmic antipodes’1 realm brings along different meaning at each of these levels of place. For instance, Mt. Agung, the highest mountain located 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 move toward 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 the more 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 more sacred directions are not ‘better’ than more profane ones. In other words, it is to find the

1 Swellengrebel (1960) provides a comprehensive discussion on such a phenomenon. 2 Kaja literally means ‘to the interior’, is one of the directions in the Balinese indigenous wind rose. 3 Kelod 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. T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 563

Fig. 1. Dewata Nawa Sanga. The Balinese indigenous windrose: a center and eight cardinals, represent the nine different forces. The Hindu triad is vertically positioned on the figure: Wisnu, Shiwa and Brahma. appropriate relative position for something or action which is considered to be of much greater importance. The concept of center, therefore, is important to the Balinese as it is for most of the Southeast Asian 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 taken the 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 wind rose directions (kaja, kelod, kangin, kauh, and their inter-cardinal directions) meet and are greeted by human beingsFthe dwellers of the second world (bhuwahloka). The important Balinese settlement’s functions such as the palace ( puri), the temple ( pura), the priest’s house (griya), the publicmeeting hall ( wantilan), and the marketplace ( pasar) are thus arranged in the surrounding areas of the crossroad as a way to accumulate the ‘power’Freligious, socio-economics, and political in natureFinto one place4(Fig. 2). As such, this particular crossroad consequently becomes a landmark and identity maker for Balinese towns and settlements.5

4 Nordholt (1991) oﬀers an interesting discussion on the role of a center within the Balinese politics and Hinduism. 5 Puri 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. 564 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

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

Another important concept to understand is the psycho-cosmic concept6 of the relationship between bhuwana agung, or macrocosm and bhuwana alit, or microcosm. Any place in Bali can be defined by its relative position to other places, and thus it is only understandable as an element in a 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 sets up his own universe of order, as does the house compound he lives in, and the desa7 beyond that compound, 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 harmonize himself with the universe as a bhuwana agung (macrocosm), because, as has been mentioned, the human body and the universe are originating from the same elements. The concept of harmonious balance in the philosophy of the Balinese is believed to constitute the basis for achieving prosperity and welfare which, in its application, has developed and crystallized 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 is essentially intended to establish a harmonious relations between human beings and the God,

6 Within a core-periphery continuum of the Balinese traditional-religious conceptions of space, according to 97% of the respondents, the psycho-cosmic concept is the core principle in the manipulation of the Balinese environments and cultural landscapes. 7 Desa 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. T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 565

Table 1 Elements of Tri Hita Karana Container Spirit (atma) Energy (prana) Vessel (sarira) Universe Paraatman Power to move the universe, Panca mahabhuta elements e.g. planetary movement Village/desa adat Tri Kahyangan or parahyangan Sima krama or pawongan or Palemahan or settlement/ dwellers/villagers and their village territory activities House House temple House dwellers Dwelling unit with its yards Human being Soul/spirit Energy Body

human beings and the environment, and human beings among themselves. This concept can be clearly 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 the three temples/Tri Kahyangan (representing the relationships between man and God, located on the 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 classification essentially 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 (see Table 1). The placement of the three temples of the Tri Kahyangan,9 is very similar to the siting of the eight temples in accordance with the principles of the vastu-widya in Indian towns, whereby the temples function as a mandala defining and sanctifying the space they enclose (Puri, 1995). In the Balinese case, the spatial area definition by way of the siting of Tri Kahyangan temples create a unit in which its population feel they belong to a bhuwana agung. The defined unit is called a desa adat10 (Kaler, 1983; Surpha, 1991; Pitana, 1994). In this unit the dichotomy of kaja-kelod,or mountainward–seaward and luan-teben or upstream–downstream, and the spatial attribute differentiation of Tri Angga11 are applicable, thus creating a true symbolically independent spatial unit. In other words, a downstream-located desa adat can find the most sacred end of its area located further down to the most profane part of a neighboring desa adat’s area without any disharmonious effect. Thus, this is contrary to Boon’s assessmentFcommenting on Hobart’s

8 Desa means ‘village’, and adat means ‘custom’, thus, although not completely representative desa adat is translated as ‘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. 9 Consisting of pura puseh (navel temple), pura desa (village temple), and pura dalem (temple of the dead) 10 Such 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’. 11 The 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 ). 566 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

‘connections between ritual purity and the flow of water’Fon a similar situation, in which he implicitly denies the cosmological independence of a desa adat: For similar reasons women bathe downstream relative to men. Nor does this fact escape cultural contradiction, even for the upstream men, because the ‘purer’ water they are deemed to merit is in actuality the downstream outflow of a relatively upstream village area, complete with female bathers (Boon, 1990, p. 78) The spatially and cosmologically cohesive unit of a desa adat is also amplified by the fact that the desa dwellers serve a similar temple congregation ( pemaksan) and develop their local values and knowledge systems to be formulated in awig-awig (literally ‘customary law’). Seen in this context, as Egenter (1996, p. 215) concludes for the Japanese village, the desa adat becomes an autonomous culture with all traits of a higher culture: harmonious philosophy, local ontology and value system, aesthetics, social hierarchy and so forth. Therefore, desa adat is the only Balinese settlement 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 of the most sacred of all formulae or mantra (Puri, 1995). The couplet contains the wording ‘Om Bhur Bhuwah Swah y’ which describes the classification of world/universe: bhur loka, the lowest level of the universe where demons or bhuta dwell, bhuwah loka or the world of human being, swah loka or the world of deities which is the highest level of the universe. This tripartite division is also known as Tri Loka or literally ‘three worlds’. It is for honoring the dwellers of the three worlds that 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 at the right time; this participation is in fact life. Additionally, for human beings, this conception is related to the concept of place as man’s existential space which brings the notion of place as a vessel of the man’s participation in the cosmological balancing process. In this respect, the object as a microcosm must be correctly composed of all its elements, and it must complete its own lifecycle of gestation, birth, maturation, decay, death, and return to nature. It is critical for the Balinese to assure life (and balance) in everything they come in contact with, so that their entire world works to perpetuate their way of life. To distort balance or to neglect to bring an object to life so it can participate is to invite misfortune or disaster. Fig. 3 summarizes the preceding text and describes the schematic relationships among a number of 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

12 As quoted from key informants: Anom, Sidja and Wiyana on some interviews (November–December 1998). 13 The 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 the smallest 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. T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 567

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 Sanga Mandala. 568 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

Fig. 4. Bali Province and the town of Gianyar, Indonesia. word griya and anyar which altogether means ‘the new priest’s house’. This is because the palace was built on an area which was previously owned by a priest (Santoso, 1985,p. 19), although it is more likely that a new priest’s house was built before the construction of the palace and its existence 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 administrative area of District of Gianyar (Kecamatan Gianyar) which has 15 kelurahan (sub-district), with only 5 kelurahan of the district excluded from the urban functional areas which constitute the town of Gianyar (Bappeda Kab. Gianyar, 1988, p. I-2). Each sub-district consists of one or more desa adat, with the town center largely occupying the Kelurahan Gianyar area which in this case coincides with the territory of Desa Adat Gianyar. At 126 m above sea level and with an area of 4,655 ha, the town is also the center of a regional administration 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 (the Sungsang river) that lie on the western part of the town whereas Tukad Blahbatuh (the Blahbatuh river) lies on the eastern part. Their average water surfaces lie 20 m below the town plain. This condition is attributed to the topographical characteristic of the town which is sloped from 5% to 40%, with the most level part (between 5% and 15%) concentrated on the south and northwest part of the town. It is only logical that the town’s physical development has mostly occurred in these more level areas. According to Monograﬁ Kecamatan Gianyar 1998 (District of Gianyar Monograph, Kecamatan Gianyar, 1998) the population of Gianyar was 69,828 with an average annual rate of increase of T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 569

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 culturally homogenous. Primary employment activities showed that Gianyar was an agricultural town with 19.5% of its population working as farmers and 34.1% as livestock breeders, whereas the other employment activities were merchant/retailers (9%), civil servants (4.9%), and handicraft and other 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 in the town of Gianyar were identified from the questionnaires and sketched mental maps. The research enumerated twenty-six cultural constants that seemed to have reflected the unconscious decisions 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) the cosmological space organization; (4) the cosmological space management; and (5) the cosmological meanings and symbols, they were synthesized into five mainstreams cultural constants, which reflect the residents’ attitude towards their living environments and spatial design. Consequently, cultural constants would be instrumental in future development of urban design objectives, which as has been shown in this research to have produced a culturally appropriate 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 conducting their lives in accordance to the Balinese Hindu conceptions within the conﬁnement of a cosmic territorial system (the desa adat, or literally ‘customary village’)14 with its bounding awig-awig desa adat (desa adat’s customary law). This parallelism between the microcosm and the macrocosm necessitates the practice of ritual ceremonies to maintain harmony between the world of the gods and the world of human beings. For the Balinese, such a system is constructed around the relationship between man and environment ( palemahan), man and God ( parahyangan), and among men ( pawongan), which was essentially articulated into the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana or ‘three causes of goodness’. Any irregularity in the cosmic order caused by the disruption of these tripartite relationships could only 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 not necessarily mean the geometric center of a region (or a cosmic territory) but more one of an

14 For instance, a man always belongs to a desa adat even though he resides permanently outside this desa adat or even 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). 570 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 existential center. The center is also considered as the symbolic materialization of the Balinese Hindu 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 human beingsFfrom 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 a main crossroad, as the physical representation of the center, known as the pampatan agung, for the 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 four horizons were projected outwards to the cardinal points of the compass, thus assimilating the group’s territory, whether tribal land, kingdom, or city, to the cosmic order, and constructing a sanctified space or habitabilis. Thus, in relation to the attitude toward human-environment relationship, the Balinese notion of their landscape is one of inwardness. In other words, a cosmic territory is an individual unit which, when combined with other similar units, will form a bigger settlement which normatively and functionally is called a town. In practice, however, sometimes irregularities in cultural landscapes could be found from one locale to another which can be explained as the local application of the relevant traditional-religious regulations. However, the dictum desa mawa cara or literally ‘a settlement has its own rules’, addressed by any desa adat’s customary law, perfectly describes this phenomenon.

5.3. Attitude to spatial organization

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

5.4. Attitude to environmental design

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

15 See Fig. 3. T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 571 for and are in compatible relationship with others’. Thus, the participation exercise is a vehicle to establish a common goal for the whole community (sima krama desa) in manipulating their environment or cosmic territory ( palemahan desa) within the framework of the traditional- religious regulations ( parahyangan desa). The Balinese utilizes the publicmeeting ( sangkep or paruman 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 cosmic territory’s elements conﬁguration as a result of cosmoreligious beliefs evolves from the translation of phenomena into a symbol system. The symbol system expresses these beliefs by abstracting and translating them into principles of organization. The organization is seen as, for example: (a) a cosmic diagram (such as in the Sanga Mandala spatial organization); (b) a path of life (such as in the organization of the center’s elements and the ritual of tawur kesanga17); and (c) a center of the universe (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 the cultural landscapes of Balinese towns and settlements, the placemaking issues generated by those cultural constants observed in the town of Gianyar should not be dissimilar to those of other Balinese 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 of Gianyar, the cultural constants uncovered have indeed constituted the determinants of the town structure, or town form-giving elements. They are either a three-dimensional object or abstract conception 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 in Bali as well, are natural and functional as well as culturalFand most particularlyFcosmological. In the latter case, which corresponds with the research theme, the mainstream cultural constants generate a number of town form determinants as follows:

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

16 Sangkep 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. 17 A 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. 572 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

(traditional palace), pampatan agung (grand crossroad), lapangan (plain grassy open space with a number of banyan trees), and so forth as one of the determinants. 3. Attitude toward spatial organization combined with the attitude to symbols and meanings assign the Sanga Mandala principle of cosmological space division and the related conceptions of 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’s urban areas in which the dominant characteristics project the attributes of ﬁxedness and permanency. The functional form-giving elements such as street structure, parks, and open spaces will 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 study area.

6.1. The desa adat

The desa adat possesses two cultural elements which define the town form. First, its Tri Kahyangan temples define the boundary of the cosmic as well as functional territory of a desa adat. In the town of Gianyar which lies to the south of Mt. Agung thus, it is located in southern part of BaliFthe pura desa, the village temple, marks the most northern end of its territory as a desa 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, its luan-teben or upstream–downstream spatial dichotomy designates the land uses and function locations according to the sacred-profane continuum. Equally important to the above mentioned elements, if not the most, is the fact that desa adat embodies the Balinese Hindu quest of restoring and/or maintaining harmonious balance between levels of cosmoses formulated in the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana. In this case, it provides the framework within which could be conducted the ritual necessary to ensure that intimate harmony between the microcosm and macrocosm without which, as Wheatley (1971, p. 418) puts it, ‘y there could be no prosperity in the world of men’. Coupled with the fact that a desa adat has a substantial area with definitive boundaries, socio-economic networks, and substantial popula- tionFthe features required for urban planning and design activitiesFit makes appropriate to install a desa adat as the only cosmic territory suitable to act as an urban design area. The presence of this definable unit, as Alexander (1977) has noted, form the basis of strong, supportive communities within the confines of the city at large, hence a precursor of a livable city. From this point of view, an urban design process which utilizes a desa adat as its design framework will essentially reflect the Balinese quest for their religious goal and cultural lifestyle. Additionally, the participation of the members of the desa adat become an inseparable mechanism in such urban design processes since the quest is one of a personal business as well as a collective concern. In this respect, it goes in similar direction with the claim that places can only be best achieved through participatory placemaking process, since local people often have ideas of how 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. T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575 573

Table 2 Land uses designation according to the Sanga Mandala principlea Nistaning Utama space: Madyaning Utama space: Utamaning Utama space: hospital, medical practices police station, hospital, government offices, temple, cultural center, museum education facilities, chemist/drugstore Nistaning Madya space: Madyaning Madya space: Utamaning Madya space: chemist/drugstore, handicraft private offices, entertainment facilities, industries shops, parking areas, housing, park Nistaning Nista space: Madyaning Nista space: Utamaning Nista space: hospital, cemetery, maternal facilities, housing, publictransportation terminal, marketplace garbage dump, handicraft industries military facilities a Source: respondents’ perceptions collected in the field survey in Gianyar (1998–1999).

6.2. The center’s elements

Among the center’s elements, three are given a considerable recognition as the recurring elements of the town’s cultural landscapes, and therefore constituting a set of cultural heritage. In this respect, their existence in spatial context will determine the rest of the town form. The ﬁrst element is the crossroad, the pampatan agung, which possesses a ritual role in the Balinese cosmoreligious belief system including as the place for accommodating the necessary ritual processions. 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 as a 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 or lapangan, 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 with different cultural-religious attributes ranging from the most sacred (the utamaning utama space) to the most profane (the nistaning nista space). Consequently, the town’s land uses and function location within this cosmic territory will be determined by these principles of spatial division. In an exercise of land use designation and plotting of function locations,19 the respondents schematically described the culturally ideal situation of their respective urban environments according to this traditional-religious principle in Table 2. The center’s elements discussed impinged upon the forces that shape the development pattern of the case study area. It could be argued that other such elements of fixedness may exist in different parts of the Island of Bali that similarly indicated the dominance of the Balinese Hindu beliefs on the island. There may be locales where geographical features come into effect, where the dictum desa-kala-patra would seem to come to the fore. However, whatever the element, it is the degree of fixedness and their cultural importance which establish its strength as a form-giving element.

19 The classiﬁcation of urban land uses and functions is based upon the currently operative Indonesian Urban Planning Standard. 574 T. Nirarta Samadhi / Habitat International 25 (2001) 559–575

7. Conclusion

In the practical realm, the Indonesian urban planning and design administrative and legal procedures suggest a centralized system in which the local government runs the national planning modelFi.e. how to present the planning document, to evaluate the plan implementation, and the likeFin such precise detail, that local diversity and institutions are ignored.20 Severe lack of competent planners and urban designers in the local planning boards, especially outside the island of Java, is partly to blame for this centralized system which aims to assist the local governments in preparing their urban and regional spatial plans. Such being the case, urban design has been reduced into a mere bureaucratic process that manufactures codified design products based on national model rather than generates a product of substance and relevance. Although the legislation urges local initiatives to devise the procedures, it appears that the existing bureaucratic tradition undermined such an effort. This tradition has influenced the way Indonesian urban planners and designers assess their projects, thus they are not accustomed or ready to include local planning knowledge systems, institutions and diversity, as well as popular participation, in the process.21 It is, therefore, necessary for the Indonesian planning system to be re-oriented so as to accommodate the vast array of existing spatio-cultural diversity throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The preceding texts have identified and explicated some placemaking issues in Balinese urban design. However to move forward to the next stage of applying the knowledge to urban design processes so as to achieve the objective of establishing culturally appropriate places, that is Balinese towns that unmistakably project appropriate cultural identity, an attempt should be made to systematically define the interrelationship between the design objectives (e.g. access, compatibility, identity, livability) and form determinants. Such an attempt will result in the formulation of urban design concepts that could productively serve as the fundamental basis in devising urban design guidelines for achieving culturally appropriate Balinese towns.

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