Bangka, as one of the greatest tin producing islands in the world, experienced large scale alterations in its socio-cultural and political geography during centuries. By focusing on the ex Residential town of Mentok, this study examines the relationship between Indonesian tin mining and the built environment. With tin running out on the island, this thesis addresses the challenge of the future.

After the Big Tin Crash, which was followed by the regime change in the Indonesian political arena, the island entered a new phase of development (decentralisation). At first, the destruction of town life after tin crisis affected the spatial image of the town. However, in the next step, the process of recovery carried by government, tin company, and community gradually improved the quality of urban life. For the future, this improvement is challenging, but also worrying. After the change of status from regency to province, the island goes into transition from an old place of ineffective bureaucratic and heritance of the past into a more dynamic economic and busy business centres. The worrying thing is this progress only focuses on physical and economical aspects of society, which denied the social and cultural factors (liveability of place). Regarding that, this paper identified four main issues, which need to be responded carefully by the authoritative power and the Bangkanese community in the future: potential land conflict (between traditional and commercial, between native plantations and private companies), environmental destruction, social problems (crimes, unemployment, drugs, prostitution), and cultural deterioration (historical heritages). Besides, this paper also identifies another aspect of potential development of future Bangka. The positive characteristics of Bangkanese as an open, tolerant, and egalitarian society could become a well model of multicultural society, which can create harmonious relationship between different ethnic groups in other places in Indonesia.

Currently, Kurniawan is a Ph.D candidate in Architecture at the Bartlett, University College London (UCL). His research topic is about architecture and urbanism of Indonesian tin mining, especially during colonial and postcolonial times. The proposal, he submits here is part of his research related on the possible future of Bangka island. Besides this such research, he also had carried out other research related to Indonesian traditional architecture, and attended seminars and workshop national and international on such topics. He also had been educated in architectural history at the same university (UCL), where he took part in the Master taught programme. In University of Indonesia, he teaches architectural design and architectural history courses. His academic experiences were also combined with professional practices in several architectural bureaus in Jakarta.