Adaptive Reuse of Maritime Infrastructure: Case Study of Colonial Harbormaster Towers in Java’s Port Cities

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2026.1.10

Published

2026-02-21

Issue

Water & Heritage for Sustainable Development

Section

methodologies and case studies

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Ricky Purbaya, Rizki Dwika Aprilian, Miktha Farid Alkadri

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Adaptive Reuse of Maritime Infrastructure: Case Study of Colonial Harbormaster Towers in Java’s Port Cities. (2026). Blue Papers, 146–55. https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2026.1.10

Keywords:

heritage management, harbormaster, Syahbandar, Spice Route, Java

Abstract

The north coast of Java has been well known to overseas traders as a hub for commodities, as well as spices brought from the Spice Islands (now Maluku Islands or the Moluccas). By the early nineteenth century, the Dutch government took control of the maritime trade in the region through the Dutch East India Company and developed the major port cities of Jakarta (formerly Batavia), Surabaya and Semarang, where the remnants of the colonial past continue to exist. After Indonesia’s independence, several colonial port structures, such as the harbormaster tower and its riverside facilities, were neglected until recently, when cities began programs to restore them. This article examines the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic towers in Java’s three major port cities and attempts to revive them amid the climate crisis challenges.

Author Biographies

  • Ricky Purbaya, University of Indonesia

    Ricky Purbaya is an architect and research assistant in Cluster of Architectural Science and Building Technology (ASBT), Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia. He is involved in documenting vernacular architecture and heritage around the world in a voluntary movement called VERNADOC.

  • Rizki Dwika Aprilian, National University of Singapore

    Rizki Dwika Aprilian is a PhD student focusing on architectural and urban history at National University of Singapore. Over the past five years, he has taught, researched, and documented architectural history, heritage, and preservation in Indonesia, also involved as a member of ICOMOS Indonesia and now serving as vice chair of TENGGARA, a non-profit foundation based in Jakarta focused on the cultural spaces in Maritime Southeast Asia or Nusantara.

  • Miktha Farid Alkadri, University of Indonesia

    Miktha Farid Alkadri is a lecturer and unit coordinator for performative architecture computation lab at the group of Architecture Science and Building Technology, Department of Architecture, University of Indonesia. His research areas intersect between building performance simulation, remote sensing, and digital fabrication, with an emphasis on the development of integrated computational design methods, interdisciplinary sustainable architecture, and context-sensitive design solutions for tropical built environments.

References

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