ADAPTIVE REUSE, COMMUNITY, AND CULTURE: SYMBOLIC INTERACTION AND THE SACRED SPACE OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS IN PALOPO CITY

Abstract

The buildings of the Luwu Kingdom, including the Post Office, Deputy Mayor’s Office, government offices, places of worship, and tombs, hold significant value as heritage architecture in Palopo City. The spatial distribution of these buildings is a defining characteristic of the city’s conservative areas. The typology of heritage buildings reflects a distinct architectural identity and shares connections with similar structure elsewhere. Syntactic relationships exist between these heritage buildings, reinforcing their historical and cultural significance. However, the government’s efforts to preserve and manage these historical structures, despite their high educational value, remain inadequate. In contrast, the local community actively engages with these heritage buildings, both in their use and in academic or cultural studies. The research employed qualitative methods, adopting symbolic interactionist research paradigm. The findings show that heritage architecture carries meanings derived both from their building themselves and from the people who interact with them. The spatial hierarchy of Palopo City consists of the Tana Bangkala, Lalebata, and Tana Tekko areas, all of which are integral to the city’s Historical Urban Landscape (HUL). The Tana Bangkala area contains a site that functions as a profane space for the community. The Lalebata area serves as a governmental space, while the Tana Tekko area is a sacred space characterized by the tombs or mausoleums. The spatial arrangement of these areas reflects a cosmological structure. Additionally, Tana Tekko and its surrounding context share similarities with a Mausoleum in Gowa, while the the kingdom’s architectural context is connected to Malay architecture across the archipelago.