Konservasi Kota Denpasar Harapan dan Kenyataan

City is one of the cultural products produced by people. The form of a city highly depends on how people face their problems and how their point of view of the nature and their lives. Traditional people regard a city as the realization of a creation process and imitation of the sky world. Furthermore, they regard it as having central forms, magic mounts, axis and sacred and profane values. It is based on those values that the old city centers have been built. The Bali traditional residences have been built on the Hindu cosmologic concept in which magic axis has been referred to. A great intersection is the center in which negative and positive energies are neutralized. To support such values the functions created are highly related to the processions of ritual ceremonies and political strength. The cities, one of which is Denpasar City, have developed so fast that magical boundaries have been getting extinct. The changes in power, technology and economy are the factors which have been responsible for the decrease in the centralized values of the Great Intersection. The development of Denpasar City shows two different faces; the traditional face which is represented by the Traditional Village with its elements such as wantilan (village hall), banjar (hamlet), purl (palace), people's houses, traditional market, and cemetery), and the modern face which is represented by the village government system and its elements as an administrative city such as offices, shops, trade centers, and so forth. Such a development also shows that the Denpasar Great Intersection was the embryo of the city. It has served as the spirit of the city with its traditional and modern faces. The old center of Denpasar City with its Great Intersection as the center has decreased in regard to the quality of its physical, social, and cultural environment, the quality of how space should be used, circulation, parking lots, supporting activities, the lanes for pedestrians, open space and green areas), and the quality of architecture, conservation and preservation, street furniture and street scape. If nothing is taken to overcome such a decrease in the quality of the old center of Denpasar City, the historical track of the older center of the city as the embryo of Denpasar City would disappear. Attempts have been made to revitalize it but only limited to physical improvements without understanding in depth the cosmological functions of the city and its development. This current study will explore the morphological development of the city and its Great Intersection. It will also explore the shifts of its cosmological meanings as a consequence of development. In addition, it will also explore the attempts already made to conserve the city as the Cultural City.