Sources

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

Bibliography

• covarrubias-1937 · ethnography

  Covarrubias, M., Island of Bali (Knopf, New York, 1937).

• eiseman-1990 · ethnography

  Eiseman, F. B., Bali: Sekala and Niskala, Volume I — Essays on Religion, Ritual and Art (Periplus, Berkeley, 1990).

• gelebet-1986 · reference

  Gelebet, I. N., dkk., Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Bali (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Denpasar, 1986).

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. 1tumpangTaper2.11 mwidth of the topmost tier
2. 2frameMedium0.92 mside of the lattice
3. 3tumpangRise0.87 mheight of the apex
4. 4bodyHeight0.44 mheight of the apex
5. 5tumpangEave0.11 mwidth of the topmost tier
6. 6bodyInset0.07 mwidth of the topmost tier
7. 7frameDepth0.04 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 Symmetric about the mid-plane, z = 0 — and here symmetry is part of its balance

  256 points; 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

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

• pass
  Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals

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

• pass
  The weight sits over the people carrying it

  The centre of gravity is 2.33 m up, 1.01 times the half-width of a 4.60 m lattice, against a limit of 1.90, with 40 bearers under it. The limit is the author’s: this project has no material properties, so nothing can say this tower stands — only where its parts are.

• pass
  No foundation: the lattice is the lowest thing, and nothing is buried

  Zero buried posts, zero stones, zero anchors. The other twenty-two buildings here bear on stone, piles, masonry, a hillside or a keel; this one bears on 40 shoulders — and that foundation walks, and turns at every crossroads.

• pass
  Every material burns

  4 materials — bambu, kayu, kain, kertas — and not one of them is there the next morning. The Minahasa waruga has one material and it is the one that lasts; two buildings for the dead, and two opposite answers about what should remain.

• pass
  The tiers climb, narrow, and their number is the standing

  7 tiers to 6.8 m. There is nothing under them: on a joglo the tumpang are a roof over a room, here they are the statement itself with air beneath.

• pass
  Every part declares the dimensions it came from

  32 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 32 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.

Raise each tier and no member fails: the count is unchanged, the tower is still symmetric, still narrows upward, nothing reaches outboard of the lattice. What runs out is the base — the size of the lattice comes from how many shoulders can get under it, and nothing ties that to height. Past a point the weight is too far above the people holding it, and the tower that says the most is the one that cannot be carried down the road it was built for. Twenty-three buildings, twenty-three rules that cannot be carried out; this is the only one that fails at its crowd rather than at its material.

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.