Catuspatha spatial concept in Denpasar city

Abstract

Denpasar city is an urban-multicultural city throughout its history when diverse ethnics settled in the city due to various interests, such as business trade, labors, politics, missionaries.  Those factors have made Denpasar get more and more populous city and it affects to the utilized space in the urban city. For instance, space for offices, business, open space of city park, and resident purposes. Regarding the spatial utility in the municipal city, however, there are few people are aware on the essence of catuspatha spatial concept. In fact, the existence of crossroad or catuspatha with a statue or shrine in the urban-multicultural city has a unique and distinctive characteristic. Its essence as a local wisdom maintains the spatial forms and spatial meanings. This study is aimed at revealing the spatial form and meaning in the main crossroads in Denpasar city with the concept of catuspatha which can be proposed as another cite of Denpasar heritage city to support the development of cultural tourism in Bali. By applying the descriptive qualitative research method, the data, both primary and secondary, were collected through participant observation, interview, and literature study.