Cultural Significance of the Place: The Key Factor in Urban Heritage Programme

Abstract

Siak Sri Indrapura city on the east coast of Sumatera was the centre of Malay Sultanate in 18th-20th century. The development of the city combined local and Europe architecture. In one side, this creates a unique urban character on how this architectural sense meets with Malay culture, which has maintained as the way of life. However, despite recognised as the regency capital in the reformation period today, the city struggles to maintain this architectural sense, in particular for continual urban development that is dealing with more socio-cultural challenges. Therefore, this paper investigates how Siak Sri Indrapura city deals with this situation, and attempts to adopt the urban heritage programme (Program Kota Pusaka) in last two years. The programme is assumed not only giving an opportunity to redevelop and to maintain the architectural sense, but also embracing Malay socio-cultural life in the same time. This paper used qualitative research approach through a systematic process that consists of the preparation stages, field visit, data analysis and interpretation, community empowerment, and the findings. This paper affirms that the urban heritage programme at Siak Sri Indrapura city has mainly determined by a cultural significance factor. The factor has not only used to maintain an exclusive set of collective local identities of the city, but also to become the main key factor in today's urban heritage programme in Indonesia.