Understanding the Historic Centre of Merdeka-Kesawan: Heritage Significance Assessment in Planning and Development Context

Abstract

The paper explores the significance of the Merdeka-Kesawan that is a historic city center Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, it describes the conflicts and potentials outcome of heritage conservation and development interventions by carrying out the observation and the unstructured interview to the local communities. The group discussion meeting was performed to get a consensus on the statement of significance of the area. The Merdeka-Kesawan is the heart of Medan city that up to the date it still has control and organizes the economic activity of the town covering an area of approximately 62 hectares. The pattern of the Merdeka historic area was different from the Kesawan area. Until the late 20th Century, the pattern and townscape have significant changes. Besides, the study highlighted that the Merdeka-Kesawan is losing its character and functionality due to the development plans have much ignored the historic urban landscape. Therefore, it is recommended to the Medan Municipal Government to develop comprehensive planning through historic urban landscape approach. Besides, it needs to improve the level of collaboration between conservation organizations and the local community to achieve the perspective win-win solution. Medan Municipal should develop a Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) collaboration among conservation organizations and the local community to government in fulfilling the dual goals of heritage conservation and development.