Abstract

The practice of colonialism in Indonesia brought in a cultural encounter that affected the vernacular architecture. This can be seen obviously in the case of Javanese palaces. Claiming as the main sources of Javanese culture, they adapt the European style into their palaces rather than strictly hold on to the ‘traditional’ Javanese house-from which the architecture of the palaces was derived. However, there are some patterns in adapting the European into the architecture of the palaces. These patterns deal with the placement of the European related to spatial hierarchy and the hybrid-ornament formation. However, as this study is conducted in two main kingdoms of Java, there are differences in the way each kingdom adapts the European. Those differences seem to relate to the identity each kingdom needs to obtain, regarding their closely located kingdoms and the history in which they are the fractions of the former Mataram kingdom.