Unveiling the Meaning of Political Architecture: A Semiotic Analysis of the Malang City Parliament Building

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_18How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Political Architecture; Roland Barthes; Mythologies

Abstract

This study examines how the Malang City Parliament Building, a non-heritage contemporary parliament in a postcolonial Indonesian city, uses pseudo-colonial design to naturalize political meanings. Although its façade was restyled after 2012 to echo Indisch and Beaux-Arts repertoires along the historic Tugu–Kayutangan corridor, the building has received little scholarly attention beyond general heritage-area studies. Using Roland Barthes’ semiotic–mythological framework, this study interprets the building as a layered sign system. Field observation and photographic documentation are coded across four units—site and perimeter, thresholds, façade and massing, and representative interiors— and then analyzed through denotation, connotation, and myth using lexical rubrics such as transparency/visibility, symmetry and axiality, elevation/podium, and symbolic centralization. The analysis identifies two key constructions: “curated openness”, in which visual transparency and axial views are combined with fences, side portals, and controlled vertical access to regulate public participation; and “symbolic order”, produced by the pseudo-colonial façade, symmetrical massing, and alignment with the heritage corridor, which together project institutional authority and continuity with colonial governmental typologies. This paper argues that pseudo-colonial styling in this non-heritage parliament works as a semiotic device that balances democratic openness with institutional distance and control, contributing to debates on postcolonial governmental architecture in Indonesia.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aqsha Fadhlu Putra
AU  - Susilo Kusdiwanggo
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/13
TI  - Unveiling the Meaning of Political Architecture: A Semiotic Analysis of the Malang City Parliament Building
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Architectural Research and Design (ARDC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 275
EP  - 292
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_18
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_18
ID  - Putra2026
ER  -