WONDERFUL YOGYAKARTA

Yogyakarta is a city in the Yogyakarta Special Region of Indonesia. It is renowned as a center of classical Javanese fine arts and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. It is also famous as a center for Indonesian higher education, because of its many universities.

Duta Wacana Christian University (DWCU) is one of the private universities in Yogyakarta. The Architecture Department at DWCU was founded in 1985. The lecturers in this department are concerned about indigenous and vernacular architecture in both the rural and urban areas including green architecture which is the creation or restructuring of buildings so they have a minimal impact on the environment, This involves carry out research and designs in both the buildings and their urban environments. They are also concern about promoting sustainable green architecture in urban areas in order to enhance the settlements of marginalized people.

It is quite interesting to see the urban form of Yogyakarta city which was founded in 1755, because there were many factors influencing the developments of the city. The spatial form of Yogyakarta city can be divided into the traditional urban form along the imaginary axis of Tugu Krapyak – Keraton – Tugu Pal Putih, colonial urban form located in Kotabaru area, and the organic urban form in several kampong settlements developed behind the commercial areas, along the riverbanks and railway tracks. There are many interesting places in Yogyakarta city which can be visited endlessly.

Tugu Jogja called Tugu Pal Putih is the most popular landmark of Yogyakarta. This monument is located right in the center of the crossroad between the Mangkubumi, Soedirman, A.M. Sangaji and Diponegoro roads. The Tugu Jogja that is almost 3 centuries old has very deep meaning and it keeps some history records of Yogyakarta. In detail, the monument was originally constructed in the form of a cylindrical pole with conical form upwards. The base is an encircling fence while the top is rounded. The preliminary height of the monument was 25 meters.

The city of Yogyakarta was at one point the focal point of the Mataram Dynasty which existed between the years 1575 and 1640. Within the confines of the city were found several temples dating back more than a thousand years. One such example is the Borobudur temple built by the Syailendra dynasty back in the ninth century. The Borobudur Temple is considered as one of the seven wonders of the world. The overall height was 42 meters, but was only 34.5 meters after restoration. The other interesting tample is Hindus Temple called Prambanan. It is an extraordinarily beautiful building constructed in the tenth century during the reigns of two kings namely Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Balitung. Soaring up to 47 meters (5 meters higher than Borobudur temple), the foundation of this temple fulfilled the desire of the founder to show Hindu triumph in Java Island. This temple is located 17 kilometers from the city center, among an area that now functions as a beautiful park.

Duta Wacana Christian University - Yogyakarta is believed to conduct The CIB International

Conference on november 26 - 27, 2010. This event is the opportunity to discuss and share our

knowledge and experiences concerning human settlement problem.

I would like to invite professional, academics, researchers and hicers of goverment to participate in

this event in order to give new idea or recomendation concerning local wisdom for improving our

settlement.

Your participation is very important, if need more information,would you please to contact us.

Dr.-Ing, Ir. Winarna, MA.

Duta Wacana Christian University

Chief Organizer