In the 1930s Henri Maclaine Pont designed a number of buildings that have become the cornerstone of the Indonesian modern architectural movement. What he meant by modern architecture is modernizing indigenous architecture; not Indonesianization of European modern architecture. We have mentioned his work in Bandung as one of his more important experiments. These efforts were followed by the Pohsarang Catholic Church.^Ref.2 (Fig 9a and 9b) A couple of projects were also built in the 1930s, but have since been destroyed. Some Indonesian historians also put the name Thomas Karsten in parallel with Pont. If Pont is the father of modern Indonesian architecture, then Karsten is the founder of modern city planning. Although they were both employed as civil servants, Pont had the opportunity to work in the archeological office in his later career, while Karsten spent most of his time working for the municipalities. Pont's sensitivity in the integration of modern technology of construction, philosophy of indigenous architecture of Indonesia, and richness and uniqueness of indigenous forms are manifest in his Pohsarang Church. On the other hand, Karsten's success, among other things, is in his consistency in establishing nature as the major defining and controlling element of city planning. A mountain in the distance, for example, is taken as the focal point of an avenue, as well as the main axis and street grid controller. In this way, Karsten placed the modern city planning as subordinate to the physical natural elements.

Fig. 9a: Pohsarang Catholic Church, Kediri. Front elevation as photographed in the 1930s

Fig. 9b: Pohsarang Catholic Church, Kediri. Side elevation as photographed in the 1930s

Buildings higher than six floors and buildings with large glass facades are probably the only absent modern form in Indonesia during the first thirty years of the twentieth century.