My interest in Dutch colonial architecture and town planning was awakened when, in 1989, I discovered a then recently published book on architecture in Indonesia. This unexpected confrontation with names and works of Dutch trained architects made me aware of a remarkable hiatus in the history of architecture as taught at Dutch universities: colonial architecture and town planning.

In an attempt to fill the gap, my dissertation describes the emergence and development of town planning in the Dutch East Indies between 1905 and 1950: the various town plans themselves but also the colonial setting, the administrative developments, the attitude and approach towards town planning, and the way architects and administrators gradually built up a body of knowledge and tools to deal with town planning in the archipelago. In other words, the development and professionalization of town planning and the simultaneous modernization of Indonesia during the first half of the twentieth century.

My Ph.D.-research was supervised by prof. dr ir Han Meyer (Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urbanism) and dr Cor Wagenaar (Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, Institute for the History of Art, Architecture and Urbanism).

Until a published version of my dissertation is available, the full text (Dutch), the English summary and the propositions (Dutch) can be downloaded.