Yogyakarta in a glance

Yogyakarta city is located within the Yogyakarta province, one of the special region provinces in Indonesia and has about 32.5 km2 area. With the total population in 2004 is about 511,744, the density achieves 15,601.2/km2 (40,406.9/sq mi). The city of Yogyakarta has also a long and rich history in Indonesian literature not only at the time when it was formed in 1755, when the existing Sultanate of Mataram was divided by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in two under the Treaty of Giyanti i.e. the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat with Yogyakarta as the capital and Surakarta Hadiningrat with Surakarta as the capital, but also contributing important roles during the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch after World War II (1945-1950).

The kraton, or Sultan's palace become the centre of culture and in many ways influence the values and tradition in the society. The location of the kraton, which is at the centre of Yogyakarta, determined how the city sprawls in all directions from kraton. At the north from the kraton lies its influential street to the lives of Yogyakarta city, called Jalan Malioboro (Malioboro Street). It runs north from the Yogyakarta kraton (palace) towards the roads that lead to another city, as well as to Mount Merapi, at the north. This is in itself is significant to many of the local population, the north south orientation between the palace and the volcano being of importance. The street is the centre of Yogyakarta's largest tourist district, with many historical Dutch colonial-era architecture mixed with Chinese and contemporary commercial district. Sidewalks on both sides of the street are crowded with small stalls selling a variety of goods. In the evening several open-air streetside restaurants, called lesehan, operate along the street. The street was for many years two-way, but by the 1980s had become one way only, from the railway line (where it starts) to the south - to Beringharjo markets, where it ends, not far from Fort Vredeburg a restored Dutch fort. The largest, oldest Dutch era hotel, Hotel Garuda, is located on the street's northern end, on the eastern side adjacent to the railway line. It also has the former Dutch era Prime Minister's complex, the kepatihan, on the eastern side which is then become the Provincial Government office complex.

Collective Memory and History

According to Halbwach there are differences between collective memory and history
Collective memory:
Tradition’ is a current of continuous thought and therefore is marked by irregular and uncertain boundaries.
As many memories as group.
Always relative, as every collective memory requires the support of a group and to be rooted in the concrete: in space, gesture, image or object.
Allows the group to recognize itself through the total succession of the images.
Such memory rests not on learned history but on lived history, which is less impersonal, less schematizing, and provide a more complete picture of specific periods and their uniqueness.

History :
Divides the sequence of centuries into fixed periods and reconstructs the past from a critical distance.
Unitary: universal memory of the human species.
An intellectual, critical, an impersonal activity, which emerges at the primary mode of knowledge, about the past when tradition weakens and social memory is fading.
Written history examines the groups from the outside.

Today, his old fashioned positivist concepts of history is abandoned with many critiques rejecting his narrow definition of history:
History cannot 'literally' construct the past (Schwartz, 1982)
A Historical narrative may becomes itself an integral part of collective memory (Hutton, 1993)

Collective Memory

Collective memory is defined as the representation of the past, both that shared by a group and that which is collectively commemorated, that enacts and gives substance to the group’s identity, its present conditions and its vision of the future.
Collective memory is generated, maintained, and reproduced through texts, images, site and experiences. (Misztal, 2003: Theories of Social Remembering)

Collective memory is not a socially constructed idea about the past but rather a socially shared notion, a way that a group conceptualized the past while in the present. (Halbwachs, 1920: On Collective Memory). It is an individual who remember not the groups/institutions, but the memories can only be achieved if they are located in social framework. Individual remember, but society determined what is worth remembering (Sumnu, 2002)

What Urban Design should consider...

Urban design considers: (Wikipedia)

* Urban structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
* Urban typology, density and sustainability - spatial types and morphologies related to intensity of use, consumption of resources and production and maintenance of viable communities
* Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
* Legibility and wayfinding – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
* Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
* Function and fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
* Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
* Character and meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
* Order and incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
* Continuity and change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
* Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals, an important component in building social capital

objectives of the course

There are 2 possible courses that I might use it as a case study for my project:
Course 1: Urban Architecture Design
Goals/Objectives:
Students have an understanding about the importance of urban spaces for their inhabitant either as a place for social gathering, culture actualization or recreational/leisure facilities.
Students have abilities to propose design of urban space based on the analysis of urban form quality and the design concepts of urban urban space

Course 2: History of Cities
Goals/Objectives:
Students have abilities to explain and make connection/analyse the relevance between physical and non physical factors of city
Students are able to 'read'/recognize and analyse the change of urban morphology in a particular case.