The Glory of the Islands: The Narrative of Islands Behind the Design of ‘Nagara Rimba Nusa’

In the pursuit of creating its new capital city, the Indonesian government conducted a design competition to find alternatives that best represented the fusion between traditional and modern Indonesia. The winning design titled ‘Nagara Rimba Nusa’ employed the narrative of glorious islands as the basis of its design concepts, evoking nostalgic memories of ‘Nusantara’ in the era of the Majapahit Kingdom. This narrative became effective in capturing public attention, followed by the President of Indonesia’s decision to formalize Nusantara as the new name of the capital city. This paper delves into the design of Nagara Rimba Nusa and analyses how the designers manifested the narratives of islands into their design proposal. It explores how these narratives were strategically used to present its architecture and urban design concepts to the public. This paper confirms that narratives of islands were extensively used as justifications for the decision-making processes, from the site selection on one of the bays in East Kalimantan to the concept of polycentric cities. Such narratives are proven essential in evoking the people’s pride and belonging, constructing a utopian imagining of a futuristic and sustainable Indonesia. It displays how the political regimes utilize utopian concepts of the city to please people at a certain economic and power level.