Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines architectural discourse in the Dutch East Indies and its relations to the colonial politics of pacification. It analyses the representation of Jakarta as the "portal of the country" and "beacon of the emerging nations" of Asia and Africa under Sukarno's Guided Democracy. The book discusses the representations of architecture under the Suharto regime, as they undergo unprecedented pressure from the forces of global capitalism and a relentless search for a cultural identity characteristic of the New Order. It examines the postcolonial city as what Wertheim called an "arena of conflict". The book explores the memories of the architectural discipline through a reading of some Indonesian architectural debates. It discusses the shared culture of architecture as it now circulates in the postcolonial countries of Southeast Asia. The book also the postcoloniality of Indonesia and the major impasse in current postcolonial studies.