Villa Isola

Villa Isola
Villa Isola
	Frontal view (ca.1933-40)
	Location within Java Villa Isola (Indonesia)
General information
Architectural style	Art-deco
Town or city	Bandung
Country	Indonesia
Coordinates	6°51′40″S107°35′38″E / 6.861°S 107.594°E
Construction started	October 1932
Completed	March 1933
Cost	500,000 guilders
Client	Dominique Willem Berretty [ nl ]
Design and construction
Architect(s)	C.P. Wolff Schoemaker

Last updated February 20, 2024

Villa Isola (now Bumi Siliwangi) is an art-deco building in the northern part of Bandung, the capital of West Java province of Indonesia. Overlooking the valley with the view of the city, Villa Isola was completed in 1933 by the Dutch architect Wolff Schoemaker for the Dutch media tycoon Dominique Willem Berretty [ nl ], the founder of the Aneta press-agency in the Dutch East Indies. The original purpose of the building was for Berretty's private house, but then it was transformed into a hotel after his death and now it serves as the rectorate building of Indonesia University of Education.

Construction

Villa Isola was constructed within six months (October 1932 — March 1933), which was quite fast at that time.^[1] The foundation was built of steel and concrete was used to fill the skeleton and the floors between iron bars. The Villa Isola complex consists of the building itself and two large gardens and it covered an area of about 120,000 square metres (1,300,000 sq ft).^[1]

The total cost to build the complex was about 500,000 guilders, despite the fact that Dominique Berrety almost went bankrupt.^[2] The building was celebrated during the opening ceremony in December 1933. Berretty invited several journalists and friends to show his new villa.^[3] The guests were impressed by the meticulous details of the decoration. The rooms were filled with warm furniture, Venetian crowns and paintings of famous Indies and western painters. There were a reception room, a dining room, a wide billiards room, a study room, sleeping rooms, family room with a balcony, open terraces at both west–east sides, and a cozy bar equipped with a movie projector. A placard with "M’ISOLO E VIVO" (I isolate myself and live) sign is adorned on the wall above the reception room.

Berretty lived there only for a few months before he died in a plane crash in Syria on the DC-2 Uiver Batavia — Amsterdam flight in December 1934. The building is still standing without major changes, except for its usage and its surrounding environment. Villa Isola was transformed first into a hotel. During the Japanese occupation in Indonesia, the building was used as the Japanese army's headquarters for Bandung in 1942. After the Indonesian independence, Villa Isola was renovated with one more floor added on top of the roof and the name was changed into "Bumi Siliwangi". In October 1954, the then Indonesia minister of education Mohammad Yamin designated the building and its surrounding complex for the new pedagogical institute in Bandung. The building still serves as the rectorate building of the Indonesia University of Education (Indonesian : Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), while the surrounding complex is the campus of the university.

Architecture

The design of the Villa Isola by the architect Wolff Schoemaker, was influenced by indigenous Javanese philosophy. The orientation of the building is according to the north—south axis, where the building faces Mount Tangkuban Perahu to the north and the city of Bandung to the south.^[4] Schoemaker was a firm follower of the art-deco style, which he mixed with local ornaments. Many circular shapes decorated the whole complex, the design of which reminds people of the shape of Candi in the east of Java. Circle is the main theme of the complex, both inside and outside the villa, including the gardens.

The main entrance is located at the center of the north facade shaded by a concrete canopy arch supported only by one pillar. The interior of the first floor consists of a lobby with a twisted staircase to the second floor, and a family room. A large window in a half-circled curve shape decorates the family room completed with an open balcony with a parapet of steel bars, with a panoramic view of the city. The family room is also equipped with a circular shape of toilet.

On the second floor, a master bedroom is located facing south, connected by two corridors to the west and the east terraces. Besides as connecting halls to the terraces, the west and east corridors function as "pipelines" to regulate air in the building, isolating the thermal condition of the tropical climate. Hence, the bedroom has a room temperature during the hot sunny days.

The third floor consists of guest rooms and an entertainment room (a bar). Due to the difference in height between the north and the south sides, the south side has an extra floor. The fourth floor in the south was mainly used as service area. Integrating a service area within a house was new at that time, as the usual colonial residential houses separated service rooms from the main house.

Gardens

Two gardens at different levels surrounded the complex. The higher north garden, was a European style garden with a rectangular pond and a statue in the middle. Orchard flowers dominated the garden and five black swans were specially imported to garnish the pond. A road divided the garden symmetrically to allow cars pass through from and to the garage. A half-circled staircase attached to the main building enhanced the symmetrical design of the garden.

The large south garden occupied most of the complex. Circular ornaments filled the south garden, starting from the building by another half-circled staircase. There are also similar staircases on the west and the east sides of the building. The garden was divided into circular areas whereas the building was positioned at the center of these circles, creating the impression that the building was an integral part of the garden.

Rumors

Unverified stories exist that Dominique Willem Berretty [ nl ] was a Japanese spy and the villa was said to be funded by the Japanese secret service. It was said that the tennis court was so firmly founded that there could be stationed a field artillery battery.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, Greater Bandung is the country's second-largest and most populous metropolitan area, with over 11 million inhabitants. Situated 768 meters above sea level, approximately 140 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler year-round temperatures than most other Indonesian cities. The city lies in a river basin surrounded by volcanic mountains that provide a natural defence system, which was the primary reason for the Dutch East Indies government's plan to move the capital from Batavia to Bandung. Greater Bandung is also the ninth-largest economy in ASEAN, after Greater Hanoi.

The Bogor Palace is one of six presidential palaces of Indonesia, it is located in the city of Bogor, West Java. The palace is noted for its distinctive architectural and historical features, as well as the adjoining botanical gardens. Istana Bogor was opened to the public in 1968 to public tour groups, with the permission of the acting president of Indonesia, Suharto. The gardens of the palace covers an area of 284,000 square metres.

Bandung is a city in the western part of Java island in Indonesia. Beside its own city administration, Bandung also serves as the capital of the West Java province.

The architecture of Indonesia reflects the diversity of cultural, historical and geographic influences that have shaped Indonesia as a whole. Invaders, colonizers, missionaries, merchants and traders brought cultural changes that had a profound effect on building styles and techniques.

Braga Street is a street in the center of Bandung, Indonesia, famous in 1920s colonial Indonesia as a promenade street. A European ambiance of chic cafes, boutiques, and restaurants along the street propelled Bandung to attain the Dutch nickname Parijs van Java.

Albert Frederik Aalbers was a Dutch architect who created elegant villas, hotels and office buildings in Bandung, Indonesia during Dutch colonial rule in the 1930s. Albert Aalbers worked in the Netherlands between 1924 and 1930 and then migrated to the Dutch East Indies after which he returned to the Netherlands in 1942 due to World War II and political circumstances following Indonesian independence. During his stay in Bandung, in a period when the city was dubbed the city of architecture laboratory, a number of his buildings were considered architectural masterpieces. Aalbers' style was inspired by expressionist Frank Lloyd Wright and modernist Le Corbusier. In Bandung, the DENIS bank in Braga Street and the Savoy Homann Hotel in Asia-Afrika Street, still carry Aalber's ocean wave ornamentation.

Villa Cavrois in Croix is a large modernist mansion built in 1932 by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Paul Cavrois, an industrialist from Roubaix active in the textile industry.

Padalarang Station (PDL) is a railway station complex in Padalarang, West Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The complex is planned to serve long-distance train services from Kereta Api Indonesia, commuter trains from KAI Commuter, and Jakarta-Bandung high-speed trains from Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC). The complex is in the form of two different station buildings, each operated by KAI and KCIC, and connected via a pedestrian bridge.

Taman Sari Water Castle, also known as Taman Sari, is the site of a former royal garden of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. It is located about 2 km south within the grounds of the Kraton, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Built in the mid-18th century, the Taman Sari had multiple functions, such as a resting area, a workshop, a meditation area, a defense area, and a hiding place.

Parahyangan or Priangan is a cultural and mountainous region in West Java province on the Indonesian island of Java. Covering a little less than one-sixth of Java, it is the heartland of Sundanese people and their culture. It is bordered to the West by Banten province, to the North by the northern coast region of Subang, Cirebon, and Indramayu, to the east by Central Java province, and to the south by the Indian Ocean.

Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker was a Dutch architect who designed several distinguished Art Deco buildings in Bandung, Indonesia, including the Villa Isola and Hotel Preanger. He has been described as "the Frank Lloyd Wright of Indonesia," and Wright had a considerable influence on Schoemaker's modernist designs. Although he was primarily known as an architect, he was also a painter and sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial architecture of Indonesia</span> Dutch East Indies architectural style

The colonial architecture of Indonesia refers to the buildings that were created across Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period, during that time, this region was known as the Dutch East Indies. These types of colonial era structures are more prevalent in Java and Sumatra, as those islands were considered more economically significant during the Dutch imperial period. As a result of this, there is a large number of well preserved colonial era buildings that are still densely concentrated within Indonesian cities in Java and Sumatra to this day.

Frans Johan Louwrens Ghijsels was a Dutch architect and urban planner who worked in the Netherlands and the Dutch Indies. Ghijsels was the founder of AIA, the biggest architecture consultant in the Dutch Indies. He was one of the instrumental architects in developing a modern style characteristic of the Dutch Indies.

Cipanas is a town in Cipanas district, in the northern part of the Cianjur Regency, West Java, Indonesia. It is situated in the valley of Mount Gede, 86 kilometres (53 mi) south-east of the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta. The name of the town means "hot water" or "hot spring" in Sundanese, due to the presence of sulphuric hot springs in the area.

Cipanas Palace is one of the six presidential palaces of Republic of Indonesia. It is located in Cipanas, West Java, Indonesia, near a highway connecting Jakarta and Bandung through Puncak. Located approximately 103 kilometres (64 mi) from Jakarta, or about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the city of Cianjur. Cipanas Palace is located in the village of Cipanas in Cianjur Regency, at the foot of Mount Gede and at an altitude of 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) above sea level. The building stands on an area of approximately 26 hectares, with the area of the building approximately 7,760 square metres (83,500 sq ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Indies architecture</span> Architectural style in Dutch East Indies

New Indies Style is a modern architectural style used in the Dutch East Indies between the late 19th century through pre-World War II 20th century. New Indies Style is basically early modern (western) architecture, which applies local architectural elements such as wide eaves or prominent roof as an attempt to conform with the tropical climate of Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kologdam Building</span>

The Kologdam Building is a historic building in Bandung, Indonesia. In the 1920s, Kologdam Building was the main building for the Bandung Jaarbeurs, a complex of buildings and pavilions where annual trade was held. The building is currently a military complex for the Education and Training Command Headquarters of the Siliwangi Division.

Villa Garnier is a building in Bordighera in western Italy. Villa Garnier and Villa Amica are part of the properties protected by the Superintendent of Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (Italy). The villa is located 11 Garnier Street in Bordighera on the Italian Riviera.

Cianjur Station (CJ) is a class II railway station located in Sayang, Cianjur, Cianjur Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The station, which is located at an altitude of 439 m, is included in the Operation Area II Bandung. This station is the station with the highest passenger density on the Cianjur–Padalarang route.

De Java-Bode was a newspaper that was published from 1852 to 1957 in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies.

References

1 2 "Monumentaal Landhuis". Java Bode. 14 March 1933. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
↑ "Short Biography of D.W. Berretty". Hans Dokkum and D.W. Berretty. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
↑ "Inwijding villa "Isola"". Preanger Bode. 18 December 1933. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
↑ W. Wibisono (28 March 2004). "Villa Isola, Monumen dalam Arsitektur (Villa Isola, Monument in Architecture)" (in Indonesian). Kompas.
↑ "Zakenman wilde persbureau aan Nazi's verkopen | Dominique Willem Berretty: persmagnaat en spion". Het Vrije Volk (in Dutch). 26 January 1984. p. 7 – via Delpher.

External links

Media related to Villa Isola at Wikimedia Commons

Villa Isola - Visual Database of Modern Dutch Architecture in Indonesia - Bandung from National University of Singapore.
(in Dutch) Villa Isola at VisualText.nl

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[steen-1] 1 2 "Monumentaal Landhuis". Java Bode. 14 March 1933. Retrieved 2007-07-21.

[2] "Short Biography of D.W. Berretty". Hans Dokkum and D.W. Berretty. Retrieved 2007-07-21.

[3] "Inwijding villa "Isola"". Preanger Bode. 18 December 1933. Retrieved 2007-07-21.

[kompas-4] W. Wibisono (28 March 2004). "Villa Isola, Monumen dalam Arsitektur (Villa Isola, Monument in Architecture)" (in Indonesian). Kompas.

[hvv0202-5] "Zakenman wilde persbureau aan Nazi's verkopen | Dominique Willem Berretty: persmagnaat en spion". Het Vrije Volk (in Dutch). 26 January 1984. p. 7 – via Delpher.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]