CULTURE AND SPATIAL POLICY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE IN REGULATING HEIGHT LIMIT OF BUILDINGS IN BALI

This paper discusses cultural forms and values, using the medium of the existing building height restriction in bali of 15 m. The results form part of findings emanating from fundamental research activities funded by the Indonesian Department for Education. The study has been contextualized in the ongoing debate over bali’s contentious Local Government Regulation No 3, (2005). That directive authorises structures exceeding the currently imposed height limit, one which could be detrimental to local culture. The article is neither a rejection of the aforementioned regulatory amendment nor is it an approval. However, it does emphasize the idea that culture should be the determining characteristic of bali’spatial organisation. The argument concentrates on the culture of space and its dynamics-territoriality. Using a qualitative research method of Matrix of culture derived by anthropologist, E.T.Hall (1973:50-129),culturally strategic territorialities are defined, correlated within nine cultural dimensions. The article will be presented in four sections. Firstly, it examines building height restrictions in bali. The second and third sections analyse territorial cultural forms and practices which are deemed important to the building height restriction, if the Balinese culture is to be sustained. Fourth, significant conclusions are drawn which affect bali’s cultural future development. Keywords : Bulding height, cultural forms, cultural practices, spatial plannin