Lepa

The waters of Wakatobi, South-East Sulawesi

A lepa is the Sama-Bajau boat-house: a planked hull with a nipa awning over its middle, and a household living aboard. What makes it worth building here is what it does not have. No ground under it, no site, no plan on any land, and — alone in this collection — no orientation rule at all. What replaces that is balance: a house that lists is a house taking water, so this is the only building here that must stay upright. The sun in this model is computed for the waters of Wakatobi, 5.3° S and 123.6° E — though for this building that position is only where it is tonight.

What is modelled here is the hull, the deck, the awning, the hearth and the outriggers — not the life. A real lepa is full of gear: paddles, spears, nets, water containers, a sail on some boats, and the belongings of a household; none of that is here, and it is exactly those things that make the boat a home to the people in it. There is no carving at the bow or the stern. Many Sama-Bajau families now live in houses on stilts over the water rather than aboard, and this model does not claim that this one is the more authentic. And not one figure here comes from a measurement, the balance limit the whole check rests on included.