Wednesday 16 March 2011

About Herman Thomas Karsten



                                              Herman Thomas Karsten 

Herman Thomas Karsten (1885–1945) was a Dutch engineer who gave major  contributions to architecture and town planning in Indonesia during  Dutch colonial rule. Most significantly he integrated the practice of  colonial urban environment with native elements; a radical approach  to spatial planning for Indonesia at the time. He introduced a  neighborhood plan for all ethnic groups in Semarang, built public  markets in Yogyakarta and Surakarta, and a city square in the capital  Batavia (now 'Jakarta'). Between 1915 and 1941 he was given  responsibility for planning 12 out of 19 municipalities in Java, 3 out of 9 towns in Sumatra and a town in Kalimantan (Indonesian  Borneo). He received official recognition from both the government
through his appointment to the colony's major Town Planning Committee  and by the academic community with his appointment to the position of  Lecturer for Town Planning at the School of Engineering at Bandung. 
He died in an internment camp near Bandung in 1945 during the  Japanese occupation of Indonesia.

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