Colonial heritage and kampungs as hybrid heritage in Surabaya, Indonesia: an interpretative analysis

Surabaya, Indonesia, is a city shaped by two types of urban heritage: colonial heritage and kampungs— former residential, irregular settlements of locals oriented towards community. However, most literature studies each component separately, despite their historical relationship under colonialism. This study proposes an interpretive urban heritage analysis at the conceptual level, in which colonial heritage and kampungs are mutually complementary in understanding the city’s memory and Surabaya’s historical identity. Based on Aldo Rossi’s Theory of the Urban Artifact, we studied three colonial areas of Surabaya: Kota Lama, Tunjungan, and Darmo. The interpretative analysis problematized the hierarchical social structure imposed on the urban form, highlighting the disparity between the colonial settlements and the kampungs. However, both elements also demonstrated to coexist in the same urban space, forming a hybrid heritage of two different societies and a memory that persists to this day. The interpretation also acknowledged the lack of a comprehensive heritage management in Surabaya that includes both components, avoiding the prioritization of colonial heritage over kampungs. The study positions itself as an interpretative framework for rethinking the concept of heritage in Surabaya as a hybridity, with direct implications for urban heritage management, postcolonialism, and critical heritage studies.