I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja I Made Pande Artadi1.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana2.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista3
1,2,3
Institut Seni Indonesia Bali Email: pandeartadi@isi-dps.
bagusudayana@isi-dps.
udiyanawasista@isi-dps.
ABSTRACT
Situated within the contested terrain of colonial architectural inheritance, this article interrogates domestic hybridity in Singaraja.
Bali, as a site of spatial negotiation and epistemic Mobilizing Homi Bhabha's third space as both an analytic and a method, it explores how local undagi engage neoclassical forms not as passive recipients but as strategic agents of cultural rearticulation.
Drawing on ethnographic immersion, architectural typology analysis, and dialogic interviews, ten heritage houses are examined as performative loci where mimicry and subversion intertwine.
The study reveals that architectural hybridity emerges less as visual synthesis and more as a tactical disruption of colonial order, a vernacular counter-script enacted through space, symbolism, and ritual.
In reframing architecture as a site of indigenous theorizing, the discussion foregrounds postcolonial spatiality not as peripheral to heritage discourse but central to its decolonial reorientation.
Keywords: Third space, architectural hybridity, postcolonial spatiality, vernacular agency.
Singaraja.
INTRODUCTION
boundaries gives rise to innovative cultural In moments where colonial legacies Resonating across disciplines converge with indigenous cultural wisdom, and geographical contexts, this idea invites what emerges is not merely a transitional global readers to reconsider how cultural juncture, but a generative Authird spaceAy, a intersections foster resilience, creativity, and dynamic arena where identities, architectures, the rearticulation of identity in postcolonial This study examines how the This conceptual framework reveals concept of the third space is reflected in the that cultural hybridity is neither a static architectural identity of the local community amalgamation nor a passive outcome.
in Singaraja, where postcolonial influences it is an active site of transformation (Bhabha, are integrated with local cultural practices.
From the architectural synthesis of shaping a built environment that reflects this colonial fayades with vernacular forms, to the cultural negotiation.
plural identities shaped by dual inheritances.
The concept of the third space, as the third space offers a productive lens through which the dissolution of rigid pivotal juncture in postcolonial discourse.
Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 Bhabha The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja where the encounter between colonizer and in cultural acculturation (Doyle et al.
, 2023.
colonized is neither wholly oppositional nor Gaillard, 2023.
Greenwood, 2.
, and the linear, but rather a reciprocal and generative concept of third space in urban planning and Building upon this.
Lombu community sustainability (Ebrahimi et al.
et al.
conceptualize the third space as Goosen & Cilliers, 2020.
Mehta & Bosson, an epistemic threshold that disrupts and However, the application of third space reconfigures dominant cultural narratives, theory to postcolonial architectural analysis enabling emergent meanings to traverse and in Bali remains unexamined.
In postcolonial blur established boundaries.
Young .
Scriver .
has examined hybrid cautions that this site of identity negotiation, architectural forms in India, where British while fluid and adaptive, can also obscure colonial influence resulted in distinctive power asymmetries, suggesting that hybridity architectural styles.
This study can inform the may simultaneously conceal and reproduce current analysis of postcolonial architecture in colonial structures.
Within this malleable Bali, where Dutch colonial legacies intersect terrain, identity is not a static amalgam of with Balinese traditions to create new forms borrowed traits but a transformative process of identity in domestic spaces.
Despite the shaped by iterative cultural exchanges and rich tradition of third space studies across shifting perspectives.
Hall's .
notion of various fields, the application of this concept hybrid identity further reinforces this dynamic, to postcolonial architectural analysis in Bali portraying the third space as an arena of creative remains unexplored.
synthesis where singular affiliations dissolve colonial history under the Dutch and its and plural narratives take root.
In architectural enduring cultural heritage, understanding terms, this space transcends its physical how hybrid architectural forms reflect this manifestation to become symbolic, a crucible complex intersection of influences is crucial for the interplay of tradition and modernity, indigenous knowledge and colonial legacy.
architectural practice.
Given BaliAos unique is within this space that identity formation is Furthermore, the lack of academic studies continuously renegotiated through material on the postcolonial perspective of architecture forms and spatial practices.
in Bali presents a unique opportunity for this The concept of the third space has The novelty of this study lies in its been widely discussed in the context of application of the third space concept to analyze architecture and culture, such as postcolonial how Dutch colonial influences have shaped residential architecture in India (Scriver, residential architecture in Bali.
By exploring 2.
, linguistics (Bhatt, 2.
, educational the hybridization of colonial and local spaces, community development, and cultural architectural elements, this research uncovers resilience (Dudgeon & Fielder, 2006.
Hall, how these forms facilitate the creation of a new Stoltenkamp et al.
, 2017.
Timm-Bottos & postcolonial identity.
This study goes beyond Reilly, 2015.
Whitchurch, 2.
, art exploration simply identifying architectural hybridity.
Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista it illustrates how local communities use architectural forms to reclaim cultural agency and resist colonial legacies.
METHOD
This study employs a qualitative case It contributes study approach to explore the hybridization significantly to postcolonial studies and of colonial and local architectural elements architectural theory by offering a localized in Singaraja.
The third space concept, a perspective on architectural hybridity.
This socio-cultural phenomenon rooted in local Western contexts, cannot be effectively analyzed architectural paradigms and demonstrates through quantitative methods.
The case study how Balinese architecture embodies a dynamic approach enables an in-depth examination of specific residential buildings, allowing for the process in a postcolonial context.
exploration of how colonial and local elements The primary objective of this research is to merge in architectural forms (Neto, 2.
identify and analyze how specific architectural By focusing on key buildings in Singaraja, featuresAisuch as building facades, spatial this research will uncover the meanings, arrangements, and hybrid design elementsAi symbols, and cultural identities embedded manifest the concept of the third space in in architecture, providing insights into the postcolonial architecture in Singaraja.
Bali.
negotiation of postcolonial identity.
The case By examining the hybridization of colonial study approach is ideal for understanding architectural styles with traditional Balinese context-dependent elements, this research aims to understand how these architectural forms negotiate and represent postcolonial identity in the urban architectural spaces (Kurniawan et al.
, 2.
Additionally, this study will explore Participatory observation is central to how architectural hybridization contributes this research, with the researcher visiting to cultural resilience by creating spaces that and engaging with colonial design elements reflect and accommodate diverse cultural in residential buildings across Northern Bali.
Through case studies of residential buildings and qualitative methods, including like Surapati Street.
Banyuning Village, and interviews with residents and architects.
Hasanudin Street were selected for their this research will examine how these hybrid historical significance and the convergence architectural forms help preserve and evolve of colonial and local architectural styles.
local cultural identity in modern urban This geographic spread offers a comparative Ultimately, the findings will analysis of hybrid identity manifestations in offer valuable insights for urban planners and both urban and rural settings.
Buildings were architects, guiding future urban designs that selected based on their representation of the balance modernization needs with preserving Balinese community, integration of colonial local traditions in postcolonial contexts.
influences, and excellent preservation of both Singaraja.
Neighborhoods colonial and traditional architectural features.
Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja Ten houses were chosen for their historical relevance and physical integrity, providing a reliable basis for studying architectural Data were collected through semistructured interviews with local government and homeowners, as well as through direct These provided in-depth insights into cultural Figure 1.
Distribution of Research Objects on the Map of Singaraja City (Source: Author's document, 2.
narratives and the influence of colonialism on local architecture.
Archival materials from of the colonizer, emerges through mimicry, local museums supplemented the analysis, where the colonized imitate the colonizerAos offering a historical perspective on how architectural forms, and through resistance, colonial elements were adapted in Singaraja's as the colonized adapt these forms to local cultural needs (Jabbar, 2.
In Singaraja, for using a triangulation approach, combining instance, hybridity is reflected in the fusion of participatory observation, interviews, and colonial elements, such as neoclassical columns architectural analysis.
This method cross- and symmetrical facades, with Balinese checked residents' perceptions of hybrid architectural traditions like open courtyards identity with the built environment, ensuring and spatial organization.
This architectural consistency and providing a comprehensive mimicry embodies colonial influence and understanding of architectural hybridity in Singaraja (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011.
Patton, between the colonial and local identities.
The Barlow .
further supports this view by noting that in East Asia, postcolonial theory RESULT AND DISCUSSION reveals unique forms of modernity that have Postcolonial Architecture in Singaraja City evolved independently of Western influences.
Postcolonial in this context refers to the offering a new framework for understanding development period in Balinese civilization identity and history in Asia, including BaliAos following colonization.
postcolonial journey under Dutch rule.
Postcolonial theory in architecture serves as an analytical tool to The residential architecture of the local critique colonial practices, which were often Balinese community in Singaraja.
Buleleng, tied to racism and unequal power dynamics Bali, clearly reflects colonial influence.
Dutch (Lin, 2.
, and to explore concepts such colonial power in Bali was established in as hybridity and mimicry.
Hybridity, the Singaraja in 1849, following the fall of the blending of the colonized culture with that Jagaraga fortress, marking the beginning of Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista significant urban development in the city.
Singaraja's rapid growth during the colonial period, as it became the Residency of Bali and Lombok, introduced various architectural styles, including neoclassical features such as symmetrical facades, columns, and arched windows, elements adapted from European These buildings physically represent the colonial power that once dominated the In the postcolonial period, architecture Figure 2.
Colonial architecture in North Bali with AoEmpire StyleAo (A).
AoLandhuisAo (B.
C) and AoModernAo (D.
F) styles.
(Source: Author's document, 2.
in Singaraja began to merge traditional Balinese elements, such as wooden carvings Streets, integrate traditional Balinese elements and open courtyards, with the neoclassical with colonial designs.
These houses feature colonial features left behind, creating a unique symmetrical floor plans with verandas at both This architectural evolution the front and back and corridors connecting reflects both resistance to colonial dominance each room along a central axis.
Bedrooms and the persistence of local cultural identity.
are placed on the left and right sides of the building, reflecting the importance of spatial development in Singaraja during the colonial organization around family and community era was more rapidly than other parts of Bali, spaces, which is central to Balinese culture.
Rahmawati .
leaving behind a rich architectural legacy that Furthermore.
Balinese continues to influence the city's residential forms today.
often accompany these colonial structures.
The research findings reveal that blending the two styles into a hybrid form.
architectural forms in Singaraja, as a mimicry This integration of local elements with of colonial styles, prominently feature 'The colonial architecture serves as a symbolic Empire Style,' 'Landhuis,' and 'Modern' styles.
form of cultural resistance, acknowledging In the harbor area of Pabean Beach, colonial colonial influence while adapting it to residences in the 'Empire Style' display preserve and express local cultural identity.
classical Greek and Roman architectural The hybridization process reflects colonial Greek AoDoricAo columns support the dominance and the resilience and continuity of roof, while Roman arch patterns .
Balinese traditions in the face of external frame the gate entrances, symmetrically arranged on either side of the building.
The walls of these buildings are decorated These colonial features symbolize the power with molding, featuring linear patterns and and dominance of the European colonial These circular patterns symbolize In contrast, the 'Landhuis' style the moon, which is related to the colonial residences, along Gajah Mada and Ngurah Rai communityAos beliefs, specifically Christian Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja religious symbols.
Furthermore.
Singaraja's 'Modern' along Ngurah Rai Street, represent a shift geometric shapes and asymmetrical layouts.
These designs prioritize functional space organization while maintaining a dynamic balance in composition.
Modern architecture in Singaraja combines colonial elements, such Figure 3.
Kori .
ain gat.
of Puri Kanginan Singaraja.
(Source: Author's document, 2.
as rectilinear facades, with new materials like cement, glass, and iron, signaling a break from traditional craftsmanship.
This hybridization x 20 c.
were usedAiproducts not native to reflects the evolving postcolonial identity.
Bali, symbolizing the colonial imposition of where modernity intersects with colonial Western construction methods.
Unlike Balinese At the Puri Kanginan Singaraja residence, which exemplifies the 'Empire Style,' the Greek courtyards and natural materials, the Modern Tuscan columns, purely ornamental and style focuses on functionality and urbanization.
non-functional, stand as symbols of colonial This shift marks a cultural transition towards These columns were not used to more independent, self-defined architectural support the structure but served as decorative expressions in the postcolonial era.
features, symbolizing the hybridization of The colonial residences in Singaraja, 'Empire European architectural forms within the Style,' local context.
Similarly, the Tympanium, showcase the integration of foreign materials a triangular decorative element above the and Western architectural forms, reflecting side entrance door, highlights the merging the hybrid identity of the postcolonial urban of colonial aesthetics with local adaptations.
The buildings were constructed While representing colonial authority, these with load-bearing walls one brick thick .
architectural features are incorporated in c.
, reinforced at the corners to a thickness ways that reflect a cultural negotiation, where of 40 cm for roof stability.
The door and local traditions and materials were adapted window dimensions adhered to European to retain a sense of identity while engaging standards, with doors sized 120 x 230 cm and with colonial influence.
This fusion of Western windows 115 x 185 cm, and featured layered and local styles exemplifies cultural resistance construction with glass panes on the inner and adaptation in the postcolonial context of leaf and paneling on the outer.
Materials like Singaraja.
cement plaster for walls and foundations, iron The image of the third space is further for ventilation, glass for windows and doors, reinforced through the presence of the Bale and decorative yellow terrazzo tiles .
cm Loji building within the residential courtyard.
Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista The Bale Loji is constructed with load-bearing elements resembling Greek Tuscan columns.
Although the Greek columns in this building is not a replica, it is evident that there is an attempt at mimicry by the colonized people of the colonial culture.
According to Homi K.
Bhabha, in the context of postcolonial theory, the concept of mimicry is commonly employed Bhabha explains that this third space is inseparable from the process of mimicry.
For Bhabha, the Figure 4.
Greek Tuscan and Doric columns on the Bale Loji Puri.
(Source: Documentation owned by Puri Kanginan Singaraja, 2.
concept of mimicry draws on the perspectives of Fanon and Lacan, who describe the process of imitation carried out by colonized nations construction system, spatial elements .
loor, or societies toward the colonial .
walls, and ceilin.
, fenestration elements, and building materials.
This reality reveals In this context, imitation is not merely a building form that appears different and an act of copying.
it also serves as a strategy does not represent the cultural identity of the to resist the dominance of colonial discourse.
colonized people or the colonizing nation.
The act of mimicry by the colonized results Further developments clearly show that in blending the native culture with colonial the original layout of the Bale Meten, which culture, creating a hybrid condition.
In other functioned solely for sleeping activities, words, hybridity occurs through mimicryAi evolved into the Bale Loji, accommodating an imitation that is not a replica of colonial new functions that had not existed previously, heritage, but rather one that transcends it such as a back veranda, d dining room, and while still utilizing the colonial legacy.
This living room.
process ultimately leads to a state described as An example is the Bale Loji owned by the Aualmost the same, but not quiteAy (Yang et al.
local Balinese Brahmana descendants (Geria The concept of the third space, derived Sukasad.
in Sukasada Village.
Singaraja City.
from the practice of mimicry, finds its context This building is in the residential courtyard, in the form of the Bale Loji columns in the Puri positioned in the AukajaAy area, facing the Kanginan Singaraja residence.
courtyardAos center .
The family temple The complete imitation in the context of (Meraja.
is situated in the most important hybridity can be traced in several other study area, oriented towards the mountain and the objects within this research.
The findings sunrise, while the main gate (Kor.
is located in indicate that the behavior of imitation, in the AutebenAy area, which is considered Aunista.
Ay its hybrid form, is evident in the Bale Loji In principle, the spatial arrangement in this through an analysis of the floor plan structure, courtyard still adheres to the hierarchical Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja Figure 5.
Site plan of Geria Sukasada on Jalan Mayor Metra No.
Figure 6.
View and perspective of Bale Loji at Geria Sukasada on Jalan Mayor Metra No.
division of spaces utama, madya, and nista, found in traditional Balinese residential The Bale LojiAos floor resembles the layout of the colonial-style Landhuis residences.
The building has a symmetrical floor plan, with verandas at both the front and rear of the house and bedrooms on the left and right sides.
The connecting Figure 7.
Details of the pillars of the Bale Loji Geria Sukasada corridor between the rooms is centrally within the building, serving as the symmetrical axis.
The symmetrical floor plan also influences are constructed in European scale dimensions:
the shape of the buildingAos fayade.
The use 120 cm x 230 cm for the doors and 115 cm x of symmetrical composition aims to achieve 185 cm for the windows.
The proportions of the aesthetic beauty of the buildingAos physical the windows, when viewed in terms of length and width, adhere to the ideal proportional A load-bearing wall construction system size according to Western aesthetic theory, supports the roof load, with reinforcement which originates from the Pythagorean school and thickening at each corner.
The wall of thought in ancient Greece.
This theory thickness is 30 cm .
quivalent to one bric.
, asserts that a visually pleasing balance that is while the corner reinforcements increase the considered beautiful is a form that has a ratio thickness to 40 cm.
The wall finish is painted of 1:1.
Alternatively, when expressed as a in clean white, with profiles .
applied whole number, 3:5.
This theory of beauty based at the top and bottom, similar to the colonial- on numerical balance has been supported by style Landhuis residences.
philosophers and artists through to modern The doors and windows of this building times, which is why this balance is also known Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista as the golden ratio.
The window proportions based on this concept are evident in the study cases.
Thus, it cannot be denied that classical Western proportional theories have been considered, absorbed, and embodied by the Balinese in the design of the Bale Loji All the doors and windows feature double leaves.
The outermost layer consists of a panel door with grilles, while the inner door is a glass panel framed in wood.
The Figure 8.
Visualization of Other Case Objects form, proportions, and sizes of the doors and windows are similar to those of colonial Landhuis-style buildings.
The arrangement Encoding Resistance: Tactical Hybridity of the doors and windows on the front wall and Vernacular Subversion in Colonial .
Residences with the door positioned in the center as the The symmetrical axis, flanked by windows on inclusion of undagi (Balinese master builder.
either side.
The symmetrical composition of the in constructing colonial residences not only doors and windows creates a calm and stable balance, contributing to the aesthetic weight of architectural technologies, but also seeded the buildingAos front facade.
The grille pattern on the door leaves, which is also present on would redefine the spatial and symbolic the window leaves, is fundamentally intended language of Balinese domestic architecture.
to fulfill the aspect of unity in the buildingAos Previously static housing forms, strictly The finishing of the window and adhering to traditional principles, evolved to door frames, as well as the door leaves, is done meet the local population's practical needs with a cream-colored wood paint.
This color and lifestyle demands.
Colonial elements, is analogous to the white color of the walls, such as neoclassical facades and Western thus easily creating harmony and visual unity between t these elements.
into the spatial organization of traditional The Figure 8 illustrates case objects with a high degree of similarity.
Western Balinese homes, creating a third space that This reality reflects the interaction between Dutch colonial indicates the presence of a mimicry pattern, culture and Balinese traditions.
Combining creating hybridity and establishing a third local and colonial influences, this hybrid space within the residential courtyards of the architecture symbolizes a mixed identity from local community.
cultural negotiation.
Based on the analysis, this encounter initiated three overlapping Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja stages of hybridity in Balinese architecture: .
Mimicry stage: Undagi, the traditional Balinese Doric order.
Undagi carefully calibrated the architect, imitated neoclassical facades and integration of these columns to align with window proportions to align with colonial traditional Balinese spatial configurations, aesthetic preferences.
Negotiation stage:
notably maintaining the axial relationship Undagi adapted additional elements, such as with the family temple.
Further manifestations replacing solid walls with open courtyards, of their agency are observed in the strategic to accommodate the climatic conditions and negotiation of scale and proportion.
social needs of the Balinese community.
illustrative instance of such adaptation involves Reinvention stage: Hybrid architectural forms the deliberate reduction of column diameters emerged, characterized by the coexistence in specific structures, thereby obscuring of colonial columns and Balinese carvings, colonial authoritative symbols within the thereby affirming Undagi's pivotal role in guise of traditional Balinese architecture.
This redefining architectural identity.
These stages adaptive approach reflects a tactical maneuver collectively demonstrate that the encounter to diminish the visual imposition of colonial transcended a simplistic narrative of traditional forms merely transitioning into hybrid ones.
on the prestige associated with colonial Instead, it underscores the active role of local architectural forms.
agency, particularly undagi, in translating At the intersection of these theoretical external influences and shaping a third space of perspectives, undagi emerge not merely as resistance within this architectural evolution.
cultural intermediaries but as subversive agents Building whose architectural decisions instantiate a trajectory, the role of undagi extends beyond localized rearticulation of power, identity, aesthetic adaptation, emerging instead as a and tradition within the built environment critical conduit for technological knowledge of Singaraja.
The phenomenon of mimicry and agency projected by the undagi resonate They with Bhabha's .
statement that "colonial meticulously studied colonial architectural dominance is never absolute.
the colonized plans, evaluated the properties of novel retain agency.
Ay Similarly.
Soja .
describes materials such as cement, iron, and glass, the third space as Aua site of contestationAy where cultural interactions between colonial and local groups create new forms of identity.
Functioning as knowledge brokers, undagi Lubis .
characterizes this dynamic as translated the architectural vernacular of Aucultural Europe into the spatial language indigenous indigenous practices both adapt and challenge to Bali.
Their agency is particularly evident imported forms.
Edward Said .
further in the preservation of Balinese cosmological cautions that Aucolonialism was sustained principles in construction, even as they through control over knowledge and cultural Balinese intercourse,Ay Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista traditional spatial systems, produces a third environment, these four perspectives converge space that simultaneously challenges colonial to frame architectural hybridity not as passive narratives and preserves Balinese cosmology.
imitation but as a deliberate, resistance-infused negotiation that continuously redefines local distinguishes itself from both pure traditional Balinese forms and colonial impositions.
Ay Colonial Within SingarajaAos Singaraja, characterized by the dominance of European aesthetics and materials such as neoclassical offering instead a dynamic and contextually rooted model of cultural negotiation.
In the context of hybridity as a tool of negotiation, parallels can be drawn between use of concrete, glass, and iron, reflects postcolonial architecture in Singaraja and the Western standards that often disregard local case of Nasova House in Fiji (Chatan, 2.
cultural contexts.
In contrast, postcolonial Unlike India's Auin-betweenAy architectural architecture shaped by undagi .
raditional condition that reproduces entrenched class Balinese master builder.
demonstrates an hierarchies.
Nasova House embodies a more active transformation by integrating colonial deliberate strategy of negotiation.
Constructed elements into Balinese traditions, producing by the local elite, the Cakobau Government hybrid forms that embody both cultural integrates the symbol of the vale levu to assert resistance and adaptive agency.
For instance.
Fijian aristocratic status, later undergoing while colonial residences feature solid walls British and large European-style windows, undagi administrative and diplomatic functions.
This adapt these features by incorporating open process exemplifies intentional hybridity, courtyards .
and recalibrating window proportions to align with Balinese cosmological actors engage architecture as a medium for principles and local climatic needs.
negotiating identity and authority.
This In contrast, the architectural hybridity postcolonial architecture in Singaraja, as observed in Singaraja unfolds through three shaped through the active agency of undagi, distinct phases: mimicry, negotiation, and reflects a distinct hybridity that transcends Local undagi .
aster builder.
do mere colonial adaptation.
It functions as a not merely replicate colonial forms but actively manifestation of cultural resistance and an transform them, generating new typologies assertion of local identity.
Unlike hybrid that affirm local identity.
However, this process architecture in India, which often reproduces is marked by epistemic ambivalence.
Cultural 'in-between' resistance emerges within the design ethos.
Anglo-Indian but the continued use of colonial materials (Scriver, 2.
, the transformation of colonial and proportional systems risks inadvertently elements in Singaraja, such as the scaling of reinforcing Western aesthetic dominance.
Tuscan columns and their incorporation into Thus.
Nasova House illustrates hybridity not Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja as a liminal space trapped in class ambiguity as reinvention, evoking what Bhabha .
has in Indo-Saracenic architecture, but as an active termed the "third space": a site not of synthesis, and symbolic strategy of cultural assertion.
but of tension, translation, and epistemological What unfolds in Singaraja is not merely In the architectural landscapes of an aesthetic convergence of colonial and former colonies and contact zones, built form indigenous forms, but a contested spatial became the medium through which colonial dialectic wherein the undagi emerge as power encoded its presence, and the terrain insurgent agents of architectural resistance.
upon which local actors inscribed negotiated Hybrid architectures, neither wholly indigenous nor wholly colonial, subvert the essentialist binaries of "native" and "Western" styles, articulating cultural difference not through purity, but through interruption, accommodation but as strategic subversion.
ambivalence, and reconfiguration.
This third space, far from being a passive site of However, hybridity remains haunted cultural compromise, becomes an architectural by contradiction.
If it marks resistance to terrain of epistemic rearticulation, where colonial hegemonies, it equally risks complicit mimicry unravels dominance and negotiation reproduction of the aesthetic hierarchies it seeks to critique.
Critics have argued that glance toward Fiji's Nasova House further the third space may enable a covert alliance deepens this reading: hybridity is not fixed in liminality but activated through symbolic design choices that encode sovereignty, liberation (Krishnan, 2017.
Mercer, 2.
agency, and cosmopolitical entanglement.
What emerges, therefore, is not just hybrid These trajectories invite us to interrogate the architecture as cultural resilience, but as a very grammar of architectural knowledge, contested spatial politics: a terrain where what is preserved, what is resisted, and what the architectural reworking of identity risks is inadvertently reinscribed.
As the analysis reinscribing epistemic dependency (Klein, advances toward the question of cultural Memmott & Keys, 2015.
Scriver, 2.
independence, such spatial politics compel a This chapter interrogates such double binds critical rethinking of architectural taxonomies through a triangulated reading of Singaraja and the uneven legacies they perpetuate.
(Bal.
Levuka (Fij.
, and Siam (Thailan.
, each The offering distinct modalities of architectural Architectural Dissonance and the Unfinished Through comparative analysis.
Project of Cultural Independence it proposes that the third space, when read Architecture, within the postcolonial architecturally, operates less as a refuge from condition, refuses containment.
It gestures colonial legacies than as a charged field of simultaneously toward memory, mimicry, and negotiation, where cultural independence Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista remains both pursued and postponed.
consciousness (Farram, 1.
Their neglect.
Singaraja's urban morphology, shaped demolition, or aesthetic dilution signals under Dutch colonial governance .
9Ae more than urban transformation, it indicates 1.
, manifests a hybrid architectural idiom epistemological displacement.
The erasure of where Balinese spatial cosmologies fuse with hybrid architecture erodes tangible evidence European material expressions (Farram, 1997.
of cultural negotiation, severing links to past Nordholt, 2010.
Robinson, 2.
The palace resistances against colonial dominance.
of Puri Kanginan exemplifies this synthesis:
the third space dissolves beneath modern curvilinear gables.
Dutch pediments, and fayades, the question arises: what remains Tuscan columns appear in tandem with of postcolonial autonomy when the material memory of subversion fades? The diminishing courtyard layouts.
This entwinement is not visibility of these built hybrids reveals a a mere decorative collage but a performative more profound crisis of inheritance, where architectural palimpsests are not preserved as Balinese elites employed mimicry as a strategic sites of dialogic memory but overwritten by The palace reasserted authority narratives of progress.
In this context, cultural independence demands more than stylistic imported styles through localized epistemes.
revival, it requires reactivating architectural Such hybridity carved out a third space of hybridity as a living archive of agency, cosmology, and resistance.
continuity and undermining colonial attempts The Nasova House case in Fiji offers at erasure.
Simultaneously.
Dutch policies like a compelling spatial allegory of contested Baliseering .
0sAe1930.
reveal the co-optation sovereignty at the intersection of indigenous of hybridity: architects like Maclaine Pont and agency and colonial governance (Chatan.
Karsten codified indigenous aesthetics into modernist frameworks, displacing undagi centerpiece of King Cakobau's short-lived agency while manufacturing picturesque hybrid state, its tripartite layout centered legitimacy (Achmadi, 2014.
Noorwatha et al.
chiefly on the residence, flanked by colonial Thus, hybrid architecture in Singaraja offices, mapped power hierarchies onto the occupies a dual epistemic terrain, resistant built form.
Drawing from the Vale Levu and regulated, subversive and appropriated.
The postcolonial fate of Singaraja's Conceived Victorian features like axial symmetry and dormers, the building embodied an intentional third Structures like Gedong Kirtya Cakobau's council hall stood elevated atop a Fijian mound, while settler institutions embody plural histories, yet are increasingly occupied lower wings, visually enacting a marginalized by development logics that negotiated partnership.
In line with Bhabha's valorize economic expediency over historical enunciation theory, the building did not simply Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja juxtapose styles but produced an ambiguous This epistemic volatility reflects the broader symbolism of co-sovereignty.
This hybridity ambiguity of third space politics: resistance and thus functioned as both aesthetic expression replication cohabit uneasily, and the aesthetic and political performance, a deliberate effort of fusion does not guarantee the politics to reframe Western domination through of emancipation.
Fiji's experience cautions localized architectural idioms.
against celebratory readings of hybridity that However, the aspirations embedded in ignore the conditions of its appropriation.
Nasova House proved vulnerable to shifting As colonial regimes adapt hybrid idioms to power dynamics.
Settler distrust of the hybrid legitimize their rule, architecture itself becomes regime, exacerbated by economic instability an unstable archive, one that simultaneously preserves indigenous agency and encodes culminated in the 1874 cession of Fiji to Britain.
imperial dominance.
Postcolonial critique The building, once a testament to syncretic must therefore remain alert to the politics of governance, came to symbolize the dissonance spatial representation, where visual inclusion between visual unity and lived inequality.
Its can mask structural exclusion, and the third dual symbolism, chiefly legitimacy entwined space oscillates between utopian gesture and imperial instrument.
Subsequently The reappropriated by the colonial state as the King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) illustrates Governor's residence.
Nasova's third space how hybridity can operate as a proactive was instrumentalized into imperial spectacle.
strategy in the face of colonial encroachment The architecture's hybrid vocabulary was not (Noobanjong, erased but domesticated: Victorian privacy as Chakri Maha Prasat and Wat Niwet Fijian Thammaprawat fused European aesthetics spatial logics.
In this appropriation.
Nasova with Thai religious symbolism to generate a exemplified how architectural resistance can consciously representational third space: to the be subsumed by the third space, once a locus of West.
Siam appeared modern and civilized.
cultural assertion, becomes a tool for crypto- its citizens, the king remained a dhammaraja colonial control when reinscribed by dominant safeguarding cultural integrity.
As Koompong Noobanjong argues, these structures do not The Nasova Monuments House merely mimic colonial styles, they function underscores hybridity's double-edged nature as instruments of identity negotiation and post/colonial ChulalongkornAos Initially envisioned as a declaration of cultural architectural mimicry was one of Aumimicry independence, a material negotiation of status with a differenceAy, a calculated reappropriation and cosmopolitan identity, it was ultimately that blurred the contours of colonial dominance absorbed into the colonial administrative through localized reinterpretation.
repertoire, losing its autonomous charge.
This Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista inherent contradictions.
In asserting cultural Bhabha, 1994.
Chanady, 1999.
Pieterse, 2.
The phenomenon of crypto-colonialism in internalized colonial idioms as markers of Siam and the post-independence adoption Noobanjong .
identifies a of Western architectural paradigms across Ausystem of conspiracyAy in which local power the Global South reveal how the third aesthetics engaged colonial modernity not space may serve both resistance and Aunew to resist, but to consolidate authority within colonization,Ay especially when modernity is global discursive norms.
The adoption of equated with Eurocentric design narratives.
European styles thus produced a crypto- Architectural hybridity thus becomes a site SiamAos of discursive contestation: fluid, productive, and ideologically charged, its emancipatory economic, aesthetic, and nationalist registers.
potential lies not in the fusion itself but in who Whether critiqued or celebrated as heritage, authors it, how it is framed, and whether it hybrid architecture remains a mediating force disrupts or entrenches systemic inequities.
between affirmations of local identity and Scholarly aspirations toward global legitimacy.
SiamAos uncritical celebrations of hybridity, arguing experience underscores hybridityAos structural that third space architecture, while historically ambivalence: it is both a strategy of resistance and a mode of complicity within the symbolic that bypass subaltern experiences.
Fusion economies of colonial power.
buildings such as colonial-era church-mosque The preceding case studies underscore hybrids may evoke aesthetic admiration while that architectural hybridity within the third obscuring the violence entangled in their space remains an ambivalent strategy, capable creation (Shackford-Bradley, 2.
Moreover, of subverting colonial hegemony yet also hybrid spaces have often been constructed vulnerable to co-optation and reinscription.
by and for elites, from royal palaces to state- While instances like Singaraja and Siam led modernist boulevards, leaving village demonstrate native agency in rearticulating communities excluded from the architectural Critics also warn that overextending sovereignty, critics warn that such hybridity the term AuhybridityAy can depoliticize the can mask enduring power asymmetries, becoming a visual proxy for dependency rather of resistance indistinct from hegemonic than autonomy.
As postcolonial theorists such as Bhabha.
Chanady, and Acherayou wholesale is equally flawed: as Acherayou suggest, hybridity destabilizes fixed identities .
reminds us, hybridity is the material only insofar as it resists hegemonic framing.
and psychological reality of postcolonial absent critical intent, it risks perpetuating The analytical task is not to dismiss colonial epistemologies under the guise of hybridity, but to interrogate its authorship, indigenized modernity (Acherayou, 2011.
intent, and impact.
Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 Yet The Third Space in Postcolonial Architecture: Hybridity and Cultural Resistance in Singaraja When contextualized critically, hybrid Ultimately, the architectural third space is not architecture reveals cultural independence a static solution but an evolving framework as a negotiated terrain rarely pure, often for cultural negotiation.
It challenges us to Case studies such as Singaraja and rethink freedom not as purity or origin, but Nasova House show how hybrid spaces as the capacity to continually recompose functioned as transitional sites, bridging identities without erasing difference.
Cultural indigenous traditions with colonial or national independence, in this light, is forged not These forms offered quiet resistance in isolation but through critical adaptation by embedding local craft or symbolism within rooted in context, authored with intent, and dominant structures, yet also risked becoming open to multiple modernity.
Ausoft
colonization,Ay local aspirations conformed to imported Hybridity, then, was never
CONCLUSION
It carried the intentions of its makers Emerging from a spatial and historical and served as both a medium of expression interrogation of domestic architecture in and a battlefield of meaning.
As Bentley Singaraja, this study asserts that the postcolonial observed .
, architectural power lies not in third space is not a passive amalgam but a site the structure itself, but in how it is deployed.
of active negotiation and cultural agency.
Across diverse postcolonial contexts, the Through phases of mimicry, negotiation, and third space emerges as a platform for plurality reinvention, colonial architectural languages, capable of empowering cultural agency, yet Empire Style.
Landhuis, and Modernist, are susceptible to reinscribing the very hierarchies recalibrated by local undagi, who integrate it aims to dismantle.
Balinese cosmology, spatial hierarchies, and Postcolonial material systems to articulate resistant and through the prism of hybridity, embodies the resilient identities.
The study contributes complex pursuit of cultural independence, a to postcolonial architectural discourse by process neither linear nor unambiguous.
The reframing hybridity not as ambivalence, but as third space offers fertile ground for reimagining epistemic contestation.
By foregrounding the identity, contesting authority, and articulating undagi as cultural and technological agents, the local values in response to global pressures.
Yet research expands theoretical understandings its ambivalence demands vigilance: the same from aesthetics to space as a performative architectural gestures that signal autonomy medium through which power, memory, and may also conceal complicity or privilege identity are rearticulated.
elite narratives.
Comparative evidence from Practically, the research underscores the Southeast Asia and the Pacific reveals that imperative to acknowledge hybrid spaces not hybrid forms have served both resistance as inert heritage artifacts, but as living cultural and hegemony, functioning as adaptive archives that demand planning paradigms strategies amidst shifting power dynamics.
grounded in local negotiation rather than Jurnal Panggung V35/N3/09/2025 I Made Pande Artadi.
Anak Agung Gde Bagus Udayana.
I Putu Udiyana Wasista colonial reproduction.
Its limitations include the narrow geographic scope and the potential https://doi.
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Routledge.
https://doi.
Bhatt.
In other words: Language and rural contexts, deploying visual and mixing, identity representations, and third space1.
Journal of Sociolinguistics, submerged forms of agency.
Ultimately, this 12.
, 177Ae200.
https://doi.
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study affirms that postcolonial architecture in Singaraja is not merely a palimpsest of colonial Chanady.
National Reconciliation it is a dynamic terrain of resistance, and Colonial Resistance: The Notion of Hybridity in Josy Marty.
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