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Sources

Every dimension the house is generated from is below, with its class and its citation. This is the project’s honesty layer, and it is given a room of its own because a smooth 3D render implies a precision the sources do not have.

The dimensions

DimensionValueClassWhat it means
legSection0.09 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of one leg. Small — no other house in this project would use a post this thin, and that is exactly the point: the load is spread until each pole can be carried by one person.No source
legPitch0.62 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSpacing between legs. Close, and the number of legs follows from this and the size of the building rather than the other way about. The house is named for that number.No source
legLean0.13 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far the head of a leg stands off its foot. Each pole leans a little and no two lean alike, so the whole substructure is a crowd of poles crossing each other without one of them being braced to another. This is the direct opposite of the Nias driwa.No source
floorHeight1.55 mIf 20% out: 0.31 mInterpolatedHeight of the floor above the ground. Low compared with the other raised houses here: the space beneath is not a room but a consequence.No source
bayLength1.90 mIf 20% out: 32.00 mInterpolatedSpacing of the bearers along the house. The plan grows by whole multiples of this.No source
bodyWidth4.60 mIf 20% out: 24.00 mInterpolatedWidth of the body. Fixed: only the length changes with the rules.No source
bearerDepth0.14 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of a bearer laid across the legs.No source
bearerWidth0.10 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of that bearer.No source
floorThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the bark floor. Thin and flexible — a floor that springs rather than one that is rigid.No source
wallHeight1.85 mIf 20% out: 0.37 mInterpolatedHeight of the bark wall.No source
wallThickness0.04 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a bark sheet.No source
passageWidth1.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the passage down the middle of a clan house, between the men’s side and the women’s.No source
doorWidth0.85 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the door at the end of the house.No source
ridgeRise2.40 mIf 20% out: 0.48 mInterpolatedRise of the ridge above the eave.No source
eaveOversail0.85 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the overhang.No source
rafterSection0.07 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a rafter.No source
raftersPerBay3Moves no measurementInterpolatedRafters in each bay.No source
thatchCourseDepth0.22 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedExposed depth of one course of thatch.No source
thatchThickness0.08 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far a course stands proud of the one below.No source
thatchLap0.45Moves no measurementInterpolatedThe share of a course the course above laps.No source
thatchBed0.04 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedClearance between the frame and the first course.No source
laddarReach2.20 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedLength of the notched log at the door.No source
ladderSection0.22 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of that log.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
nothingIsBraced0Moves no measurementCanonZero diagonals in the whole substructure. This house stands on a great many small legs tied to nothing and buried in nothing, so when the ground shakes the legs move with it and the building stays up. It is the direct opposite of the Nias omo, which answers the same problem by triangulating every bay. Two houses, one problem, two opposite answers — which is why both are here.Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).
legsNotBuried1Moves no measurementCanonThe legs stand on the ground and are not buried. A pole set into the earth has to break before it can move; a pole merely standing may shift and settle back.Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).
manyLegs1Moves no measurementCanonThe legs are very many and very small. The load is spread so that no single pole needs to be large — the house is named for how many legs it has rather than for how strong they are.Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).
clanDividesInTwo2Moves no measurementCanonA clan house divides lengthwise into a men’s side and a women’s side with a passage between. A family house is not divided. What changes is inside, and from outside the two are the same.Mansoben, J. R., Sistem Politik Tradisional di Irian Jaya (LIPI–RUL, Jakarta, 1995).
tiedNotPegged1Moves no measurementCanonThe joints are lashings rather than pegs or notches. A lashing can work a little without breaking, and that is the whole idea of the building stated at one connection.Waterson, R., The Living House: An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia (Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1990).
stumpHeight0.55 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the stumps at the edge of the cleared ground. This house stands on ground that was felled; stumps state that without drawing a forest nobody measured.No source
stumpWidth0.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDiameter of a stump.No source
stumpSetback2.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far inside the edge of the clearing the stumps stand.No source
stumpCount7Moves no measurementInterpolatedHow many stumps are drawn at the edge of the clearing. A number chosen to read, not a reading of any place.No source
clearingRadius13.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRadius of the cleared ground around the house, between the house and the forest. A rumah kaki seribu stands on ground cut out of a wooded slope; the exact siting and the size of the clearing are the author’s, like nearly every figure in this pack.No source

Bibliography

  • depdikbud-papua · reference

    Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).

  • mansoben-1995 · ethnography

    Mansoben, J. R., Sistem Politik Tradisional di Irian Jaya (LIPI–RUL, Jakarta, 1995).

  • waterson-1990 · ethnography

    Waterson, R., The Living House: An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia (Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1990).

Which of these matters most

Nearly every dimension on this page is the author’s own. What the provenance bar does not say is whether that matters. Each row below is computed by rebuilding the house: one dimension is pushed 20%, and the house is measured to see how far it follows. Nothing is estimated — the figures are the difference between two runs of the generator.

  1. 1bayLength32.00 mnumber of legs
  2. 2bodyWidth24.00 mnumber of legs
  3. 3ridgeRise0.48 mridge height
  4. 4wallHeight0.37 meave height
  5. 5floorHeight0.31 mfloor height

If only one dimension could be surveyed, this is the one. This is sensitivity, not uncertainty: it shows what moves, not how likely the value is to be wrong. The 20% is itself the author’s choice.

Invariants

There is no measured drawing yet, so correctness rests on structural truth. These checks fail the build.

  • pass
    Bilateral symmetry about Symmetric about the ridge plane, x = 0; the legs are not counted, because each pole leans its own way

    904 points (95 of 263 parts); largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.

  • pass
    Every tenon contained in its mortise

    212 pasak, takik and tumpu joints; every one engaged.

  • pass
    No joint spans more than one stage

    Every joint engages two parts from the same stage or from consecutive ones.

  • pass
    Stage ordering, and nothing below ground

    263 parts, every one bearing on something already standing or on the ground.

  • pass
    Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals

    1488 triangles; indices in range, none degenerate, every normal unit length.

  • pass
    Zero diagonals in the whole substructure: not one leg is tied to another

    168 legs, not one of them crossed or lashed to a neighbour. This is the exact opposite of the Nias omo, which triangulates every bay of its substructure because a rectangle racks. Two houses, one problem — a ground that moves — and two opposite answers: one refuses to sway, the other sways. Both stand.

  • pass
    The legs stand on the ground and are not buried

    168 legs, every one standing on the surface. A pole set into the earth has to break before it can move; a pole merely standing may shift and settle back — the same reasoning as the absence of diagonals, stated at the other end.

  • pass
    The legs are very many and very small

    168 legs of 90 mm. No other house in this project uses a post that thin — the load is spread until each pole can be carried by one person, and the house is named for how many there are rather than for how strong they are.

  • pass
    Every leg leans, and almost no two lean alike

    166 distinct bearings across 168 legs. The lean is computed from each leg's own position rather than randomised: lib/ may not use randomness, and a house that came out a different shape every time it was drawn would be a screensaver rather than a model.

  • pass
    A clan house divides lengthwise in two; a family house does not

    Two partitions with a 1.00 m passage between them. From outside this house is identical to a family house — what changes is inside.

  • pass
    Every joint is a lashing: no pegs and no notches

    212 lashings, and no other kind. A lashing can work a little without breaking — the whole idea of this building, stated at one connection. It is the only house in this project with a single joint kind.

  • pass
    Thatch courses lap with no bare band

    18 courses over 3.96 m of slope.

  • pass
    Every part declares the dimensions it came from

    263 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 263 interpolated.

  • skipped
    Checked against a measured drawing of a real house

    Skipped. No measured drawing has been wired in, so there is nothing to compare against. This check will not be made to pass by weakening it.

What a check is preventing

Ten green rows are not a reason to believe anything. So one check is run against a house built to break it, and what is printed below is that check’s own verdict rather than a description of it.

Thicken the legs and the house still stands, still unbraced, still on poles that are not buried, still swaying when the ground does. Every other check in the pack goes on passing. The only thing that stops being true is that the legs are small — and once a leg is a post, the reason for having hundreds of them is gone, and what is left is an ordinary raised house with an oddly crowded understorey. Eleven houses, eleven rules that cannot be carried out. This one fails the way a definition fails: nothing breaks, and the thing has stopped being what its name says it is.

The house as built

pass90 mm / 168leg section · legs

168 legs of 90 mm. No other house in this project uses a post that thin — the load is spread until each pole can be carried by one person, and the house is named for how many there are rather than for how strong they are.

Rear prow raised to 0.15 m

fail153 mm / 168leg section · legs

168 legs of 153 mm.

The second house is never rendered. It is built during the build, failed, and thrown away.

This bar moves as real surveys are wired in. That movement is the project's progress metric.