Mataram Kingdom is located in central java, although in the history, the kingdom was split into two sub-kingdom, namely Ngayogyakarto (the city of Jogjakarta) and Surakarta (the city of Solo or Surakarta), the two shared the same root tradition and even came from a single family ancestor. What we about to see is an acculturation of Islam and Javanese culture, which is essential to understand the style of these mosques. There are 3 mosques that stands until today. The oldest would be in Kotagede, built on 1640 by Sultan Agung …

4th International Symposium of Nusantara Urban Research Institute (NURI) committee invite you to participate on our symposium that be held on November 7th 2009 at Architecture department of Engineering Faculty, Diponegoro University, Tembalang Campuss, Semarang, Central Java- Indonesia.
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Abstract submission dateline: Oct 1st, 2009 (billingual, max 300words, single space, times new roman 10)
Abstract Announcement       : Oct 3rd, 2009
Full paper submission          : Oct 25th, 2009
Sympossium date               : Nov 7th, 2009
Excursion                           : Nov 8th, 2009 (in confirmation)
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Background: Traditionally, markets in Indonesia were not just places to trade goods and services, but also a place of cultural and social exchange. In the ancient days, markets open once a week (the Javanese calendar only has 5 days in a week; Pahing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon, and Legi) because the population was not as dense as today. The day on which the market is open is known as “dina pasaran” (market day). More over, every village had their own market day. This meant that anyone from a particular village, who …

A reservoir near Jakarta has recently overly flooded and not just some flood, it raised and overflowed the dam, cracked it widely, putting up all the concrete and soil from the side reservoir, 20 meters tall, tumbling to the surrounding, which unfortunately was overcrowded with human settlements. As seen on the picture, the damage was vast and so far a hundred lives were gone, houses shattered, body parts missing, pets dead, and illness sprouted.

Since the world is now discussing about the so-called Global Economic Crisis, we thought it would be appropriate if we discussed a little bit about abandoned projects in the metropolitan. In this case, we take a look at two abandoned projects in Surabaya. What has these abandoned projects to do with global economics? Well, one of them, Adistana (the reddish tower on the right), has been abandoned since the monetary crisis that had hit Indonesia in the late 90’s. While the other project (Carrefour, right next to Adistana – on …