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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
radius2.05 mIf 20% out: 10.75 mInterpolatedRadius of the honai’s wall. Small, and the smallness is the point rather than a shortcoming: a small volume is cheaper to keep warm. Set it beside the mbaru niang, which is also round and also thatched to the ground, and is over eleven metres across.No source
wallHeight1.35 mIf 20% out: 3.56 mInterpolatedHeight of the wall. Lower than a grown person: heat rises, so a tall wall is heat lost.No source
facets32Moves no measurementInterpolatedNumber of posts in the wall ring. It is also the drawing resolution of the circle — but the posts are real, so this figure is both at once.No source
postSection0.13 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a wall post.No source
floorThickness0.06 mIf 20% out: 0.01 mInterpolatedThickness of the board floor laid on the earth.No source
apexRise1.50 mIf 20% out: 1.32 mInterpolatedRise of the apex above the eave. Low — a cap rather than a cone. A mbaru niang rises fifteen metres from the ground; this one stops short of three.No source
eaveOversail0.35 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the overhang outside the wall.No source
domeSteps10Moves no measurementInterpolatedHow many bands are used to approximate the dome. Drawing resolution rather than a dimension of the building.No source
domeShoulder0.55Moves no measurementInterpolatedHow round the shoulder of the dome is. Zero gives a cone; this figure is what rounds it.No source
rafterSection0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a rafter.No source
thatchCourseDepth0.17 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedExposed depth of one course of thatch.No source
thatchThickness0.04 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far a course stands proud of the one below. Small, and it has to be: this building is four metres across, and the nine centimetres that is unremarkable on a twenty-metre roof made the dome read as a stack of plates.No source
thatchLap0.50Moves 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
layerDepth0.03 mIf 20% out: 0.02 mInterpolatedThickness each extra layer adds to the roof’s blanket. The layer rule multiplies this figure — the only number in this project that is entirely about heat.No source
doorWidth0.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the door. Narrow, and deliberately: a large opening is heat leaving.No source
doorHeight0.85 mIf 20% out: 0.17 mInterpolatedHeight of the door. A person has to stoop to enter — not an oversight but a chosen dimension, and the only door in this project a person cannot walk through upright.No source
jambSection0.09 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a door jamb.No source
loftHeight1.15 mIf 20% out: 0.23 mInterpolatedHeight of the loft above the floor. People sleep up there because heat rises — so this floor is the building’s reason, stated as a plane.No source
hearthRadius0.36 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRadius of the hearth at the centre of the floor. This is where the whole building begins.No source
hearthDepth0.12 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of that hearth.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
ebeiScale0.92Moves no measurementInterpolatedSize of an ebei relative to a honai.No source
wamaiScale0.78Moves no measurementInterpolatedSize of a wamai relative to a honai. The pig house, and warmed for exactly the same reason.No source
smallToKeepWarm1Moves no measurementCanonThe building is small, round and low because it has to hold a fire’s heat until morning. The Baliem valley is sixteen hundred metres above the sea and on the equator: the days are mild and the nights are cold. It is the only building in this project whose problem is temperature — the other twelve answer rain, a moving ground, rot, rats, or standing.Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).
noWindow0Moves no measurementCanonZero windows. Light comes through the door and through the smoke leaving the roof, and by no other route — an opening is heat going. Thirteen buildings in this project and only this one has none at all.Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).
fireInside1Moves no measurementCanonA fire burns at the centre of the floor with no chimney: its smoke works out through the thatch, curing the grass and driving out insects on the way. That hearth is the building’s reason, and the last stage that installs it is not a finishing touch but the point.Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).
sleepAbove1Moves no measurementCanonPeople sleep in the loft, above the fire. Heat rises, so the sleeping plane is put where the heat is — the building’s thermal argument, stated as a floor.Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).
threeBuildings3Moves no measurementCanonOne compound holds three: a honai for the men, an ebei for the women and children, a wamai for the pigs, all inside one fence. The three are the same building at different sizes and none is a lesser version of another — the pigs are kept warm for the same reason the people are.Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).
compoundFence1Moves no measurementCanonA honai stands inside a silimo: a fenced compound holding the men’s honai, the women’s ebei, the wamai for pigs, and the yard between. One honai is one building of a group, and the group is the dwelling.Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).
compoundSide24.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSide of the fenced compound. That there is a fence is canon; its size is the author’s.No source
fenceThickness0.16 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the silimo fence.No source
fenceHeightSite1.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the silimo fence. A Dani fence is closely set poles and boards; here it is only its height, with none of how it is set.No source
neighbourOffset8.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDistance to the other buildings inside the fence. Only their footprints are drawn; both are built by the same rules and can be seen by changing them.No source

Bibliography

  • heider-1970 · ethnography

    Heider, K. G., The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (Aldine, Chicago, 1970).

  • depdikbud-papua · reference

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

  • 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. 1radius10.75 mvolume of the room
  2. 2wallHeight3.56 mvolume of the room
  3. 3apexRise1.32 mvolume of the room
  4. 4loftHeight0.23 mheight of the loft
  5. 5doorHeight0.17 mheight of the door
  6. 6layerDepth0.02 mthickness of the blanket
  7. 7floorThickness0.01 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 plane of the door, z = 0 — the only direction a round building has

    4180 points; largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.

  • pass
    Every tenon contained in its mortise

    31 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

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

  • pass
    Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals

    5536 triangles; indices in range, none degenerate, every normal unit length.

  • pass
    The room is small, and the smallness is deliberate

    About 24.4 m³ — one floor of a mbaru niang alone is some 2.8 times larger, and a mbaru niang has five. Both are round and both are thatched to the ground; one is round to stack five stores inside a cone, the other because a circle is the cheapest wall to warm. Roundness turns out to say nothing on its own. Note what is tested: the form, and never the warmth — this project has no material properties and will not acquire any.

  • pass
    Zero windows: the door is the only opening in the whole building

    31 wall posts close the ring, with one gap for the door and no other gap anywhere. Light comes through that door and through the smoke leaving the roof. Thirteen buildings in this project, and only this one has no window at all — an opening is heat going.

  • pass
    The door is too low to walk through upright

    0.85 m high and 0.60 m wide. A person has to stoop, and that is a chosen dimension rather than an oversight: a large opening is heat leaving. The only door in this project like it.

  • pass
    Not raised: the floor lies on the earth

    A floor at 0.06 m. The other twelve buildings in this project stand on posts or masonry; this one sits on the earth, because the ground holds heat and raising the house would put cold air under the people sleeping above it. The zero is a decision rather than an absence.

  • pass
    People sleep above the fire, because heat rises

    A loft at 1.21 m, directly above the hearth. The building’s thermal argument stated as a plane: not an explanation of why the house is warm, but a floor put where the heat is.

  • pass
    The thickness of the blanket is the only rule here that is entirely about heat

    4 layers, 12 cm thick. It changes nothing about who lives here, what the household may claim, or how the building is used — only how long the fire’s heat lasts, and how much grass has to be cut and carried.

  • pass
    Every rafter lies inside the dome at its own height

    No point of the frame reaches outside the dome at its own height. A straight rafter under a curved surface stands proud over the middle of its span — a fault this project has now found six times, arriving here as a curve rather than as a moved line.

  • pass
    Thatch courses lap with no bare ring, from the eave to the point

    17 courses over 3.06 m of outline.

  • pass
    Every part declares the dimensions it came from

    87 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 87 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.

Widen the wall and nothing fails structurally: the ring still closes, the dome still covers it, the door still makes a person stoop, the loft is still above the fire. Every other check in this pack goes on passing. The only thing that stops being true is that the room is small — and a honai that is not small is a round thatched house with a fire in it, a description that fits a mbaru niang equally and therefore says nothing about either. Thirteen buildings, thirteen rules that cannot be carried out. This one fails the way the rumah kaki seribu does: nothing breaks, and the thing stops being what it was for.

The house as built

pass2.05 m / 24.4 m³radius · volume

About 24.4 m³ — one floor of a mbaru niang alone is some 2.8 times larger, and a mbaru niang has five. Both are round and both are thatched to the ground; one is round to stack five stores inside a cone, the other because a circle is the cheapest wall to warm. Roundness turns out to say nothing on its own. Note what is tested: the form, and never the warmth — this project has no material properties and will not acquire any.

Rear prow raised to 2.25 m

fail2.25 m / 29.6 m³radius · volume

About 29.6 m³.

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.