Old, haunted, dark and poorly maintained are the impressions of Indonesian museums. Unlike foreign museums which are always crowded with visitors, Indonesian museums are always quiet and deserted. The biggest challenge for museums today is recognise that museums are for people and that their future depends on developing themselves to meet the needs of the people. Thus, Indonesian museums need to develop and apply mass communication model combined with the interpersonal communication model where in this type of communication visitors are allowed to participate in the exhibition and become part of the exhibition since this is what nowadays visitors desired to do. With a better planned exhibition interior design, following the basic design principles such as transforming space with harmony, creating room atmosfer, pacing and circulation, suitable lighting design and display as well as using appropriate presetantion technique combined with technology and multimedia, an exhibition will become a more interactive and attractive that will meet visitor’s expectation

The research explored exhibition space designs, particularly the interior design elements such as circulation, lighting, and display techniques to find out whether the design elements corresponded the design principles and to find out which museum had the most ideal exhibition design that was able to deliver exhibition messages to the audience. The research applied qualitative method with case study approach in three museums in Jakarta, those were National Museums, Bank of Indonesia museum, and museum of Fine Art and Ceramic as case studies and qualitative data collecting methods through observations to get real-settings information. Data analysis and comparison of various interior elements shows that from the three case studies only Bank of Indonesia Museum has an integrated exhibition space using various interior elements; circulation and lighting design as well as display technique that support the success of a museum to deliver exhibition messages to their visitor. It can stimulate visitors senses visually, auditory, and kinetic.

The long-term goal of this research was to make variety ornament documentation on architecture and the interior of Indonesian historical buildings, especially for buildings having the combination between western and eastern. The original plan of this research was to achieve some cultural preservation efforts, they were (1) to find various styles of design art, including the variety of native straits-born Chinese ornaments, Art Deco, and Neoclassical, or found that there are any acculturations among the ornaments in an interior. (2) To understand characteristics of each style and applied it appropriately in the interior space. (3) To find on how the building functioned and how to preserve as cultural heritage. The method began with a survey, interviews, and observations by documenting the application of Indonesia art and culture for cultural conservation, especially on interior design. The case study was straits-born Chinese buildings in Lasem, Central Java. The observation and research concerned with design styles applied in architecture, interior, and home decoration. The observation and research were followed by summarizing and analyzing the material obtained from field surveys result by comparing two samples of Chinese houses in Lasem that also supported with literature research. Researchers find several differences of art styles which had been applied. The styles are original Chinese decorations, Art Deco, and Neoclassical decorations.

Since the strikes of globalization, Indonesian seemed to enjoy foreign food rather than traditional food. The reasons were the concept of foreign food suits the lifestyle of nowadays people, attractive branding, unique promotion, and interior design. Bandung was the capital city of West Java Province. It was one of many cities in Indonesia that attracted local and international tourists through nature, shopping, and culinary experience. This research aimed to face the rapid growth of foreign restaurants. Bandung needed a place as the center of the traditional culinary of West Java to keep the existence of traditional culinary. This research used the comparative study, observation, and literature study. It finds that Pusat Wisata Kuliner Jawa Barat is a place to get information about the culinary of West Java and culinary tourism, which has an information center, restaurant, and merchandise shop. The interior will be designed by presenting the value of traditional culinary in West Java in a modern style.

Heritage building not only has historical value but also serves as a collective memory for the society. When it is older and no longer used, preservation needs to be done to keep its history. One way to preserves a heritage building through adaptive reuse, which also adds economic value to it. The historic Colomadu sugar factory built in Colomadu district area, near Solo city, Central Java, Indonesia, and then abandoned, now converted into a museum and amusement area named De Tjolomadoe. This adaptive reused tell histories and memories of the Sugar Factory’s glorious past. The presence of this space is increasingly popular, in part because of the growing existence of social media. How the visitors of the museum interprets the functions of real space and virtual space, becomes the context discussed in this study. From the results of this study, we will find out how the visitors engaged in adaptive reuse of space which is associated with the visitor’s needs of social media.