HYBRID HERITAGE GOVERNANCE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF BANDUNG’S LOCAL REGULATION (2009–2025) IN THE CONSERVATION OF COLONIAL BUILDINGS IN THE ASIA-AFRICA DISTRICT

Abstract

The Asia–Africa Conference heritage complex in Bandung is a tropical colonial heritage area with historical, architectural, and symbolic significance. However, site management still faces fundamental challenges: from 2009 to 2025, regulatory revisions have not been fully translated into physical protection, adaptive reuse principles, community participation, or science-based technical guidelines, creating a persistent gap between legal norms and conservation practice. This study analyzes Local Regulation No.19/2009, Bandung City’s cultural heritage policy No.7/2018, and No.6/2025 on authenticity, integrity, significance, and adaptive reuse. UNESCO HUL, Kyoto, Barcelona, and George Town were selected because they share comparable historic urban landscapes, colonial or layered heritage contexts, governance complexity, tourism–creative economy pressures, and conservation-management frameworks. Using document review, content analysis, deductive thematic coding, and descriptive benchmarking, the study identifies a shift from protectionist regulation toward a holistic-participatory hybrid model integrating incentives and technologies. Given its documentary design, this study does not empirically validate Bandung as a global laboratory; rather, it proposes Bandung as a potential conceptual test bed for tropical heritage governance, contingent on legal certainty, substantive participation, science-informed guidelines, and future field-based validation.