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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
plotWidth16.00 mIf 20% out: 1.60 mInterpolatedWidth of the plot, boundary line to boundary line. It is not the house’s figure: it was there before the house was built, and on the far side of that line is somebody else. What is measured against it is not the wall but the eave — a roof that oversails a boundary is a matter between neighbours rather than a question for the builder.No source
plotDepth22.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the plot, from the road backward.No source
roadSetback4.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDistance from the front of the langkan to the road line, on a plot that fronts the road.No source
pathSetback8.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDistance from the front of the langkan to the road, on an inner plot reached along a lane. A house that does not front the road is still measured against it.No source
sideMargin1.20 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThe least clear distance that has to be left between the house and the side boundary. It is this building’s limit, and somebody else drew it.No source
roomWidth2.90 mIf 20% out: 1.74 mInterpolatedWidth of each room. More rooms make a wider house, and a wider house walks toward the boundary.No source
coreDepth9.50 mIf 20% out: 0.40 mInterpolatedDepth of the body of the house, behind the langkan.No source
plinthHeight0.55 mIf 20% out: 0.11 mInterpolatedHeight of the brick plinth above the ground. A city house on low ground that floods: a low masonry platform rather than posts.No source
wallHeight2.60 mIf 20% out: 0.52 mInterpolatedHeight of the wall to the plate.No source
wallThickness0.08 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a board wall.No source
postSeat0.06 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far a post foot sits down into the brick plinth. Without it the post only touches the plinth on one plane, and a joint whose members do not enter each other holds nothing.No source
postSection0.14 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a timber post.No source
tileThickness0.03 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a floor tile — bought by the piece, and the first floor in this project that was purchased.No source
langkanDepth3.20 mIf 20% out: 0.64 mInterpolatedDepth of the langkan: room enough to receive somebody, sit, and do business without opening a door.No source
langkanRail0.62 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the langkan rail. Low on purpose: it marks the edge rather than closing it, and somebody on the road can still see who is on it.No source
langkanStep0.18 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRise of a step from the yard up to the langkan.No source
foldAt0.38If 20% out: 0.54 mInterpolatedWhere the roof changes pitch, measured from the ridge to the eave. That fold seen from the side is what gives this house its name.No source
upperPitch0.62If 20% out: 0.33 mInterpolatedPitch of the upper plane: metres of fall for each metre out.No source
lowerPitch0.30If 20% out: 0.26 mInterpolatedPitch of the lower plane, which has to be shallower than the upper one — otherwise there is no fold, and the house is no longer a rumah kebaya.No source
eaveOversail0.70 mIf 20% out: 0.06 mInterpolatedOverhang of the tiled roof.No source
roofThickness0.09 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the tile covering.No source
gigiHeight0.28 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the gigi balang board along the eave.No source
gigiThickness0.03 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the gigi balang board.No source
gigiOverlap0.04 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far the gigi balang board reaches up into the tiling it is nailed to.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
theFrontIsForStrangers1Moves no measurementCanonThe langkan is a raised floor at the front of the house, with a low rail and no door between it and the road: a neighbour, a trader or a stranger can stand on it, be received on it and leave from it without ever being let inside. The twenty-nine buildings before this divide space among people who belong to them; this one has a room for people who do not.Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, 1986).
theLineIsSomebodyElses1Moves no measurementCanonThe house stands on a plot with a boundary line down each side, and on the far side of that line is somebody else. A tongkonan is bounded by rank, a khaim by its tree, a sudung by what a person can carry, a malige by the reach of an arm. This one is bounded by a line — the first constraint in this project that is somebody else’s property rather than a material or a body.Heuken, A., Historical Sites of Jakarta (Cipta Loka Caraka, Jakarta, 2007).
theRoofFolds2Moves no measurementCanonThe roof changes pitch partway down: steep over the house, then shallower out over the langkan. That fold seen from the side is what gives the house its name. The Banjar rumah bubungan tinggi also takes its name from a roof, and that is a different claim: there four roofs stand in a row along one ridge, here one slope bends once.Swadarma, D. & Aryanto, Y., Rumah Etnik Betawi (Griya Kreasi, Jakarta, 2013).
everythingIsBought0Moves no measurementCanonZero materials taken from the ground it stands on. Its timber comes down a river to a yard and is sold by the length; its tiles are fired elsewhere; its floor tiles are bought by the piece; and its nails — the only nails in this collection — are bought too. This is not a note about materials but about a city: the house is built out of a market rather than out of the forest around it.Heuken, A., Historical Sites of Jakarta (Cipta Loka Caraka, Jakarta, 2007).

Bibliography

  • depdikbud-1986 · reference

    Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, 1986).

  • heuken-2007 · reference

    Heuken, A., Historical Sites of Jakarta (Cipta Loka Caraka, Jakarta, 2007).

  • swadarma-2013 · reference

    Swadarma, D. & Aryanto, Y., Rumah Etnik Betawi (Griya Kreasi, Jakarta, 2013).

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. 1roomWidth1.74 mwidth of the house
  2. 2plotWidth1.60 mroom left to the boundary
  3. 3langkanDepth0.64 mdepth of the terrace
  4. 4foldAt0.54 mwhere the roof folds
  5. 5wallHeight0.52 mheight of the ridge
  6. 6coreDepth0.40 mheight of the ridge
  7. 7upperPitch0.33 mheight of the ridge
  8. 8lowerPitch0.26 mheight of the ridge

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 axis of the plot, x = 0 — and deliberately not front to back, because what is at the front is a road

    200 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

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

  • pass
    Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals

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

  • pass
    Everything stands inside the plot, clear of the boundary

    A 8.70 m house on a 16.00 m plot, leaving 3.65 m to the boundary against the 1.20 m that has to be left. The plot was there before the house, and the width follows from how many rooms the household wants: nothing relates those two numbers but this rule — and on the far side of that line is somebody else.

  • pass
    The front is for people who are not let in

    A 3.20 m terrace with a 0.62 m rail and no door between it and the road; this house’s first door is behind it. To get onto the langkan nobody has to pass a door, and to get past it everybody does.

  • pass
    The roof folds, and its shallow plane is the one over the terrace

    The upper plane falls 0.62 m per metre and the lower 0.30 m, with the fold inside the line of the house. That fold seen from the side is what gives this house its name — and the shallower plane is the one shading the langkan.

  • pass
    Every part declares the dimensions it came from

    22 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 22 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.

Wider rooms are the plainest improvement anybody could ask for, and no part of the building objects: the plinth stands, the frame carries, the roof still folds, the terrace still faces the road. What the house meets is a line. Past a point its eave comes inside the distance that has to be left to the boundary, and beyond that boundary is a neighbour. It is the first limit in this project that belongs to somebody else — and what crosses it first is not the wall but the roof, which is exactly how the argument happens between neighbours.

The house as built

pass6.50 m / 6.80 mhow far the eave reaches · how far anything may reach

A 11.60 m house on a 16.00 m plot, leaving 2.20 m to the boundary against the 1.20 m that has to be left. The plot was there before the house, and the width follows from how many rooms the household wants: nothing relates those two numbers but this rule — and on the far side of that line is somebody else.

Rear prow raised to 3.1 m

fail6.91 m / 6.80 mhow far the eave reaches · how far anything may reach

atap comes within 1.20 m of the boundary; gigi-a comes within 1.20 m of the boundary; gigi-b comes within 1.20 m of the boundary

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.