ARCHITECTURE AS IDENTIFICATION OF PLACE : THE CASE OF JOGLO KAMPUNG KETANDAN SURABAYA

Abstract

To make a site become a place is the existential function of architecture. The definition of architecture as identification of place (Unwin, 2003), comes with a purpose that architecture is also a process to discover the essence, the meaning conceivably present in the given environment. In the case of Kampung Ketandan Surabaya, the architecture is produced by the community by preserving and revitalizing the character of the kampung, with regards to its history, its activities and its buildings. Balai Pertemuan Warga in the form of Pendhopo is one of many other community centers in the kampung. This paper investigates in what way architecture generates symbolic places. Descriptive criticism is used as a method to investigate the phenomenon by considering architecture as a way of art and finding the interrelationship between the elements in it. To grasp the context of Kampung Ketandan, a case study method is chosen because of its ability to explore and endow the holistic, yet meaningful aspects of a presence phenomenon happening in real-life. The results of the study revealed that place is a holistic phenomenon, determining an 'environmental character' and architecture is a symbol to identify it.