Building Transformation in Bandung City Centre: Expansion of Land Lot at Pasar Baru Area

Abstract

[EN] City as a man creation is always experiencing transformation from time to time. The city center area, originating from a residence area has turned into a commercial area for trading. This transformation is recognized by the physical building change. This paper will describe building transformation in the Pasar Baru area, which is a conservation area in the city center of Bandung city, Indonesia. Colonialism left dualism of the land status in this area, formal and informal. Formal land is located on the road side shaped as row shop houses whilst the informal land lies behind the shop houses in form of urban kampong. The improvement of business and trading, demands a larger working area so space expansion is needed. The difference of land status and location makes it possible for shop house owners to expand their lot toward the kampong behind. Nowadays old shop houses as conservation buildings are hard to recognize because they have been transformed into new shop house forms. By observing the shape it’s expected that the lot expansion was the motivating factor. How did the transformation occur? Can transformation on one land lot give contribution to transformation on the city? It’s expected that the occurring transformation should not eliminate the conservation, building and area in the city center and the residential function could still be maintained.