The nation-state visualized

Abstract

Buildings are moulded by and reflect order, social relations and ideas. However, how people build not only results from but also exerts influences upon how they think: order, social relations and ideas find expressions in actual buildings. As a message any building has to be decoded by those who use or observe it. But while it is composed of a multiplicity of signs, it also invites a plurality of readings and meanings. It must thus be considered on the basis of whose beliefs or whose view of the world a particular reading and meaning circulated in society is made up. The powerful in society often bring up unintentionaly as well as deliberately a certain reading and meaning of a building. Rather, the dominant are those who manage to present them that may be taken in as unquestioned and thus “natural”. Buildings are major arenas where reading and meaning publicly unfold. The material of my discussion is the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park), popularly known as Taman Mini, located in a suburb of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. It is both a recreation park and a cultural theme park containing examples of traditional architecture, museums, religious buildings, movie theaters, gardens, and other cultural and historical exhibitions and facilities alike. It is designed to provide visitors with an overall insight into Indonesia's people, arts, social customs, history and living environment. My purpose is to reveal the use of the Taman Mini by investigating its design, location and way of representing, considering the socio-political setting of which it is a part. Both in the selectivity of its content and in the signs and style of representation the Taman Mini works to support the order favorable to those who have built it. © 1995, The Human Geographical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.