Shophouses in Indonesia: Layout and History

Shophouses in Indonesia are the narrow town buildings that put a shop or workshop at street level and family living space above it. The type is long, deep and thin, with a frontage that can be only a few metres wide and a plan that runs back from the street much further than it is wide. Across the old ports and market towns of the archipelago, shophouses formed the backbone of the commercial streets, and many of them still stand in districts such as the old town of Jakarta, the Chinatown quarters of Java and the colonial avenues of Sumatra. Learning to read a shophouse shows how a single building could hold a business, a household, a store of goods and a family’s daily life in one compact unit.

The basic plan of an Indonesian shophouse

The defining feature of the shophouse is its narrow front. Land in a busy town was expensive and was often divided into long, narrow plots, so the building was pushed to fill the frontage and extended as far back as the plot allowed. The ground floor was given over to trade. A shop might sell cloth, hardware, medicine or food, and a workshop might produce goods for sale. The goods were displayed at the front, stored at the back and moved in and out through the open street front. Upstairs, the rooms served as living quarters, storage, sleeping space or a small office, depending on the needs of the household.

This arrangement meant that a shophouse was rarely used for one purpose only. A family might cook at the back, sleep upstairs and sell from the front, and the same space could change use through the day. The plan therefore had to be flexible, and most shophouses were simple rectangles with a clear line of rooms running from the street to the rear wall.

Air wells, light and the courtyard at the back

A deep plan creates a problem: the rooms in the middle of the building have no windows to the outside. Builders solved this with air wells, which are small open courtyards set into the plan. An air well brings daylight and fresh air to the inner rooms, and it also allows warm air to rise and escape from the middle of the building. In some houses the well was left open to the sky, while in others it was roofed with louvres or a partial cover. The ground beneath an air well could be sunken and planted, which helped keep the space cool.

Upper floors often had louvred windows facing onto the air well, so that light and air could pass through the house without the rooms being fully exposed to the street. In Peranakan houses of Java and the Malay world, these courtyards were a key feature, and the layout was adapted to the family’s needs and the width of the site. The courtyard is one of the clearest signs that a shophouse was built for a hot, wet climate rather than copied from a northern town.

The covered walkway at the front

Many shophouses had a covered walkway along the street, formed by extending the upper floor over the pavement or by setting the ground-floor front back under a continuous roof. This walkway protected pedestrians and goods from sun and rain, and it gave the street a sheltered line that shoppers could walk along in any weather. In Singapore the arcade became known as the five-foot way, and in Malaya it was also known by words that meant the foot-way or the covered path.

The origin of the walkway is debated. It is linked to Raffles, whose 1822 town plan for Singapore required a covered walkway in front of shophouses, with a width of at least five feet. The plan itself did not use the phrase five-foot way, but its rules created a continuous sheltered passage on both sides of the street. The idea is often connected to Batavia, where Raffles had served as British governor from 1811 to 1816, and it is possible that he ordered walkways of about five feet in front of Batavia’s shops. That claim is not firmly established.

Built widths often differed from the nominal figure. Where the five-foot rule was applied, the walkways in practice could range from about six to eight feet, and later ordinances in the Straits Settlements and in Malayan towns required verandah walkways in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result was a continuous, sheltered street front that became one of the signature features of colonial-era trading towns.

For a visitor, the walkway is the most useful feature to look for. Stand at the edge of the street and look along the line of the building fronts. If the upper floors project over a shaded pavement, you are looking at a shophouse street in its original form, even if the shops have changed hands many times.

The word ruko and the shophouse in Indonesia

In Indonesia, the shophouse type is often called ruko, a contraction of the words for shop and house. A ruko is a multi-storey building in which the lowest floor is used for business and the floors above are used as living space or storage. The word covers a wide range of buildings, from old colonial-era shophouses to modern rows of shop-houses on new estates, so the term alone does not tell you the age of a building.

Shophouses in Java: Semarang, Surabaya and Jakarta

In Semarang, the Chinatown quarter contains shophouses that have been adapted to modern economic use while keeping Chinese cultural features. The old town of Semarang is also covered on the Kota Lama Semarang page, which places the colonial buildings in their wider setting.

In Surabaya the Kembang Jepun area is lined with older shophouses. The streets are narrow and many of the buildings are very old, and the district is a good place to see how the shophouse frontage works at street level. The Kya-Kya and Kembang Jepun page describes the streets in more detail, and the Jalan Tunjungan page covers one of the city’s colonial shopping streets.

In Jakarta, the old town of Batavia has many buildings that show the influence of the same tradition. The Pecinan quarter of Glodok has shophouses whose facades and spatial arrangement reflect a mix of Dutch, Chinese and Betawi influences. The Kota Tua page provides an overview of the old town and the buildings that surround its main square.

Medan and the trading street

In Medan, the Kesawan area is a colonial trading street with old shophouses and trading houses. The district remains a lively trading area, and its older buildings are part of the wider colonial heritage of the city. The Kesawan Medan page sets out the street and the buildings in more detail, and it shows how the shophouse type worked in a port city with a mixed population.

How to read a shophouse street today

When you walk a shophouse street, begin at the frontage. Look for the walkway, the line of the upper floor and any signs of an older shopfront behind a modern sign. Then look at the upper windows. Shutters, louvres and a line of narrow openings often signal the family rooms, and a balcony may mark the living area. Finally, if you can see down a side passage or through an open door, look for the air well. It is usually visible as a patch of light or a line of planting in the middle of the building.

Shophouses are not only a historic curiosity. They remain practical, and many of them still hold family businesses. The plan works well for a trade that needs a street front, storage behind and living space above, and this is why the type has survived for so long in towns across the archipelago.

Common questions about shophouses in Indonesia

Is every old building on a shopping street a shophouse? Not always. Some were built as single-purpose shops or as offices. The shophouse type is defined by its narrow frontage, the mixed use of the floors and the depth of the plan.

Why was the trade placed on the ground floor? Customers could reach it straight from the street, and goods could be moved in and out through the open front without climbing stairs. The living rooms were placed above, away from the noise and dust of the street.

Can a shophouse be restored to its original plan? Sometimes. The most successful restorations keep the frontage, the walkway and the air well, and then adapt the interior for modern use. Changes that close the air well or remove the walkway usually reduce both the light and the character of the building.

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Shophouses in Indonesia: Narrow Fronts, Deep Plans and Covered Walkways