Sources — Ume kbubu — Rumah Adat Nusantara

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

Dimension	Value	Class	Citation
Radius of the house at the ground. Small, and deliberately so: a small volume fills with smoke more readily and is easier to keep warm.radius	2.60 mIf 20% out: 1.04 m	Interpolated	No source
How many facets the cone is drawn with. A tessellation count, not a dimension of the building.facets	24Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the low timber wall, on the form that has one.wallHeight	1.05 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the eave above the ground on the form whose thatch comes down — nearly touching, and there is no wall at all.eaveHeight	0.35 mIf 20% out: 0.07 m	Interpolated	No source
Thickness of the low timber wall, or of the skirt of thatch carried down to the ground on the form with no wall. Either way the circumference under the eave is closed but for the door: a house that holds smoke in may not have an open band round its foot.wallBoard	0.06 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Rise of the dome above the eave.domeRise	2.90 mIf 20% out: 0.58 m	Interpolated	No source
Section of a post.postSection	0.14 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
How many posts stand in the ring, besides the centre post.postCount	6Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Section of the centre post the loft hangs from.centreSection	0.20 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Section of a dome rafter.rafterSection	0.07 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
How far the thatch stands off its frame.thatchBed	0.05 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Thickness of the thatch.thatchThickness	0.16 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
How many courses of thatch run from the eave to the apex.thatchCourses	7Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
The share of a course the course above laps. Without a lap every join between courses is a slot round the whole dome — and a roof that has to keep smoke in may not have one.thatchLap	0.50Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the loft floor above the ground for one harvest. It is the most consequential figure in this pack: too low and the maize scorches, too high and the smoke is cold before it arrives.loftBase	1.45 mIf 20% out: 0.29 m	Interpolated	No source
How much deeper the loft goes for each further harvest kept. The only dimension in this project taken from a length of time rather than from people, rooms or rank.loftPerYear	0.28 mIf 20% out: 0.11 m	Interpolated	No source
Radius of the loft against the ring of posts carrying it. Derived from the posts rather than from the house’s radius: a thing that rests on something takes its size from what carries it.loftShare	0.78Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
The bottom of the useful smoke band: below this the fire is too close and the maize scorches.smokeLow	1.10 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
The top of the useful smoke band, and the author’s figure. Above it the smoke is too cool and too thin to cure the seed, and a store out of its reach is a store of maize that rots.smokeHigh	2.85 mIf 20% out: 0.57 m	Interpolated	No source
Radius of the stone hearth in the middle of the floor, directly under the loft.hearthRadius	0.45 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the ring of hearth stones.hearthHeight	0.12 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Width of the only opening.doorWidth	0.62 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the only opening. Low on purpose: a person stoops through it, and the smoke and the heat do not follow them out.doorHeight	1.15 mIf 20% out: 0.23 m	Interpolated	No source
Section of a door jamb.jambSection	0.09 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Standing height of an adult. Not from a source about Timor — its own source key so that this shows.standingHeight	1.62 mIf 20% out: 0.32 m	Interpolated	Ukuran tubuh manusia yang ditetapkan penulis, bukan dari sumber tentang Timor. Kunci yang sama dipakai pak Bali, pak Waruga, dan pak Ngada.
Height of an adult stooping through a low opening. The door has to be taller than this to be usable, and lower than a standing person to be worth having.stoopingHeight	1.05 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	Ukuran tubuh manusia yang ditetapkan penulis, bukan dari sumber tentang Timor. Kunci yang sama dipakai pak Bali, pak Waruga, dan pak Ngada.
Radius of the lopo, the open building in the same yard.lopoRadius	2.10 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Height of the lopo’s floor above the ground.lopoFloorY	0.90 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Rise of the lopo’s cone above its floor.lopoRise	2.20 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Distance of the lopo from the house, in the same yard.lopoStand	4.40 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Radius of the swept family yard.yardRadius	9.00 mMoves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
Depth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.jointEngagement	0.30Moves no measurement	Interpolated	No source
The smoke of the floor fire cures the seed maize hung in the loft above it: it dries it, drives the weevils out, and keeps it fit to plant until the next rains. So this building has to hold smoke in — the only roof in this project with a second job, because the other twenty-seven only have to keep water out.smokeKeepsTheSeed	1Moves no measurement	Canon	Schulte Nordholt, H. G., The Political System of the Atoni of Timor (Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971).
One opening, and no window at all. The door is low enough that a person stoops through it, and that is how the heat and the smoke do not follow them out. Its check is bounded on both sides — tall enough to pass, low enough to be worth having — and it is the only two-sided check in this project.oneLowDoor	1Moves no measurement	Canon	Cunningham, C. E., “Order in the Atoni House”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 120, 1964.
How deep the loft goes is set by how many harvests a household keeps against a bad year. It is the only dimension in this project taken from a length of time; every other one comes from a body, a room, a rank, a household, a crowd, or what a building depicts.seedIsMeasuredInYears	1Moves no measurement	Canon	Schulte Nordholt, H. G., The Political System of the Atoni of Timor (Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971).
In the same yard stands the lopo: a round open building on posts, with no walls and its own store under a conical roof. The same people build a thing that must not ventilate and a thing that is nothing but ventilation, a few metres apart, both round and both under a cone. The two together are one refutation of the idea that a form settles a purpose.lopoIsTheOpposite	1Moves no measurement	Canon	Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Nusa Tenggara Timur (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, 1986).

Bibliography

schulteNordholt-1971 · ethnography
Schulte Nordholt, H. G., The Political System of the Atoni of Timor (Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971).
cunningham-1964 · ethnography
Cunningham, C. E., “Order in the Atoni House”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 120, 1964.
depdikbud-1986 · reference
Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Nusa Tenggara Timur (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, 1986).
anthropometry · none
Ukuran tubuh manusia yang ditetapkan penulis, bukan dari sumber tentang Timor. Kunci yang sama dipakai pak Bali, pak Waruga, dan pak Ngada.

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.

1radius1.04 mdiameter of the house
2domeRise0.58 mheight of the apex
3smokeHigh0.57 msmoke left above the seed
4standingHeight0.32 mmargin between the door and a standing person
5loftBase0.29 mheight of the loft
6doorHeight0.23 mmargin between the door and a standing person
7loftPerYear0.11 mtop of the seed
8eaveHeight0.07 mheight of the apex

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 The house is symmetric about the plane of its door, z = 0 — the lopo in the yard is not part of the claim
660 points (28 of 34 parts); largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.
pass
Every tenon contained in its mortise
2 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
34 parts, every one bearing on something already standing or on the ground.
pass
Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals
624 triangles; indices in range, none degenerate, every normal unit length.
pass
The seed hangs in the smoke
A loft at 1.45 m with 2 harvests 0.56 m deep reaching 2.01 m, inside a 1.10–2.85 m band. Where the loft sits follows from how the house is framed; how far the smoke stays useful is the author’s limit; nothing relates them — and what fails when they do not meet is not the building but the seed in it.
pass
One door, and it is low
An opening 1.15 m high: above 1.05 m so a stooping adult gets through, and below 1.62 m so they have to stoop. It is the only two-sided check in this project, and both bounds matter — a door too low is not a door, and a door too tall lets the smoke out.
pass
There is no other opening anywhere
7 courses of thatch, only the lowest of them cut for the door, and no window at all. The other twenty-seven roofs in this project only have to keep water out; this one also has to keep smoke in, and any further hole would cancel the reason the building exists.
pass
The loft goes in before the thatch closes over it
Once the dome is closed the only way in is a door a person stoops through. This order is not tidiness: it is the only order that is possible.
pass
Every part declares the dimensions it came from
34 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 34 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.

Raising the loft is the first thing anybody would do. A fire on an earth floor under a bamboo platform hung with dry maize is exactly as dangerous as it sounds, and lifting the seed away from the flame gives headroom, room to work, and one less thing to worry about. No part of the building objects: the dome is unchanged, the door still makes you stoop, there is still no window, the loft is still carried by the frame that carried it before. What fails is the seed — past a point the smoke reaching the top of the store is too cool and too thin to cure anything, and a store out of its reach is a store of maize that rots before the rains.

The house as built

pass2.57 m / 2.85 mtop of the seed · top of the smoke

A loft at 1.45 m with 4 harvests 1.12 m deep reaching 2.57 m, inside a 1.10–2.85 m band. Where the loft sits follows from how the house is framed; how far the smoke stays useful is the author’s limit; nothing relates them — and what fails when they do not meet is not the building but the seed in it.

Rear prow raised to 1.75 m

fail2.87 m / 2.85 mtop of the seed · top of the smoke

the seed reaches 2.87 m and the smoke is spent by 2.85 m

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.