The Application of Local Concepts on Herman Thomas Karsten's Town Planning

Abstract

In this era of globalization, there is an interesting phenomenon in urban development. Many parts of the city are chaotic in their development, but there are cities that are fixed, unchanging. Semarang city is one that has not changed due to the times. Semarang city was planned by Herman Thomas Karsten as a modern city starting in 1916. Herman Thomas Karsten (1884-1945) is a Dutch architect who has worked as an architect and city advisor since his arrival in Indonesia in 1916. Karsten's most complete work is located in Semarang City. Karsten's work covers the town planning of Semarang city and the architectural design of buildings. History shows the fact that architectural works that survive are those that have a local aspect in their design concepts. This fact also happened to Semarang city. Through a literature review on city theory, architecture and local aspects, and by taking the case of Semarang city as a modern city by Karsten, it can be seen that the application of local concepts in Karsten's work, as well as the relationship between local concepts and primary elements of city in Karsten's works. This study aims to interpret Karsten's concept of thought, explore all local aspects in urban planning, which influence Karsten, and reveal the dominance of local aspects found in the case study. This research provides benefits for the scientific development of architecture, and provides new insights to the academic community about the importance of local aspects to architectural work. This research makes it clear that a city will survive if its town planning applies local concepts. As for the community, this research contributes to helping the creation of a new built environment for cultural heritage artifacts through a good architectural conservation work strategy.