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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
heightLow5.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedFloor height for a low house. This is the height most often actually built, and the one least often photographed.No source
heightMid11.00 mIf 20% out: 2.20 mInterpolatedFloor height for a middling house.No source
heightTall22.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedFloor height for a tall house. Houses this high exist but are rare, and the figures in circulation are larger still for reasons that have nothing to do with building a house.No source
trunkBase0.95 mIf 20% out: 0.19 mInterpolatedDiameter of the wanbon trunk at ground level.No source
trunkTaper0.02If 20% out: 0.04 mInterpolatedHow much diameter the trunk loses per metre of height. A number belonging to the tree rather than to the builder — which is exactly why it can defeat a height somebody chose.No source
trunkBearing0.28 mIf 20% out: 0.06 mInterpolatedThe least trunk diameter that may still carry a floor.No source
trunkAboveRidge2.40 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the shoots and the remaining stem above the ridge. It is the only part of a building in this project that goes on getting longer after the builders have gone home.No source
postSection0.16 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a cut pole standing around the tree.No source
bayLength2.60 mIf 20% out: 1.04 mInterpolatedLength of floor for each hearth. One hearth is one household, and the floor lengthens by that count.No source
floorWidth4.20 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the floor, from the women’s side to the men’s.No source
joistDepth0.14 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of a floor bearer.No source
deckThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the floor of split palm and bark.No source
wallHeight1.85 mIf 20% out: 0.37 mInterpolatedHeight of the bark walls.No source
wallThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a bark sheet.No source
partitionThickness0.06 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the partition between the two sides. It is the only partition in this building, and it is the whole division.No source
roofRise1.50 mIf 20% out: 0.30 mInterpolatedRise of the ridge above the wall.No source
roofOverhang0.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedOverhang of the sago-leaf roof.No source
roofThickness0.12 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the sago-leaf roofing.No source
hearthSide0.95 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSide of the clay slab a fire is lit on.No source
hearthThickness0.16 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the clay slab.No source
hearthClear0.30 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedClearance around the opening a hearth hangs in, so that a fire cut loose actually falls to the ground rather than catching on the frame.No source
ladderWidth0.26 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the notched pole climbed to get up.No source
ladderLean1.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far the foot of the ladder stands out from the post. The ladder only leans, and at night it is pulled up.No source
clearingRadius15.00 mIf 20% out: 3.00 mInterpolatedRadius of ground cleared around the house, so that no tree can fall on it or be used by anybody to reach it. It is the only site figure in this project that is a safe distance rather than an arrangement.No source
stumpRadius0.45 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRadius of a stump left standing in the cleared ground.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
livingSupport1Moves no measurementCanonIts principal post is a living tree: a wanbon topped off at floor height, its roots still in the ground and its shoots still growing. The other twenty-three buildings in this project stand on something dead — stone, piles, masonry, a hillside, a keel, people’s shoulders. This one stands on something with a species, a girth that changes every year, and that can die while the house is still lived in.van Enk, G. J. & de Vries, L., The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its Cultural Context (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997).
heightIsTheDefence1Moves no measurementCanonThe height of the floor is the point of the building rather than a consequence of something else. A house is put up out of reach — of raids, of neighbours, of the mud and of what lives in it. So the empty air under the floor is part of the building, and nothing may be in it.Stasch, R., Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2009).
twoSides2Moves no measurementCanonThe floor is divided in two: a women’s side and a men’s side, each with its own hearth and its own way up, separated by one partition. The Karo siwaluh jabu holds eight households in one room with no partition at all; this one holds two sides in one room with exactly one.van Enk, G. J. & de Vries, L., The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its Cultural Context (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997).
hearthCanBeDropped1Moves no measurementCanonA hearth is a clay slab on a light frame, hung in an opening in the floor. If the fire flares, its lashings are cut and the whole hearth is dropped to the ground. So the floor is required to be open under every fire, on a building made entirely of bark and leaf, twenty metres up.Stasch, R., Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2009).
ladderIsTakenAway1Moves no measurementCanonThe way up is a notched pole that only leans, and at night it is pulled up. Height defends nothing if the ladder stays in place, so this part of the building is designed not to be attached.van Enk, G. J. & de Vries, L., The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its Cultural Context (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997).

Bibliography

  • vanenk-devries-1997 · ethnography

    van Enk, G. J. & de Vries, L., The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its Cultural Context (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997).

  • stasch-2009 · ethnography

    Stasch, R., Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2009).

  • depdikbud-1986 · reference

    Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Irian Jaya (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, 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. 1clearingRadius3.00 mradius of the cleared ground
  2. 2heightMid2.20 mheight of the floor
  3. 3bayLength1.04 mlength of the floor
  4. 4wallHeight0.37 mheight of the ridge
  5. 5roofRise0.30 mheight of the ridge
  6. 6trunkBase0.19 mtrunk diameter at the floor
  7. 7trunkBearing0.06 mtrunk left over the bearing limit
  8. 8trunkTaper0.04 mtrunk diameter at the floor

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 partition, z = 0 — the two sides are built alike, and what tells them apart is not their shape

    264 points; largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.

  • pass
    Every tenon contained in its mortise

    9 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

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

  • pass
    What holds it up is alive, and still growing

    One wanbon from the ground to 16.8 m — 2.4 m above the ridge — with the middle floor bearer framed into it. The other twenty-three buildings here stand on something dead; this is the only one part of whose structure will be bigger next year.

  • pass
    The trunk is still thick enough at floor height

    A diameter of 950 mm at the ground becomes 752 mm at 11.0 m, against a limit of 280 mm. The height is the household’s; the taper belongs to the tree. Nothing ties those two numbers together.

  • pass
    There is nothing under the floor

    11.0 m of empty air, and the emptiness is the point of the building: a house put out of reach. In the other twenty-three buildings here the space under the floor is a consequence of something else — a storey, a step, a tide, a slab. Here it is the statement.

  • pass
    Every fire can be dropped

    2 hearths, each hung in an opening with nothing under it all the way to the ground 11.0 m below. On the other buildings here an opening in a floor is a way through for a person; here it is a way out for a fire.

  • pass
    Two sides, one partition, and a way up for each

    1 hearths on the women’s side and 1 on the men’s, divided by one partition, each with its own ladder at its own end. The Karo siwaluh jabu holds eight households in one room and divides nothing at all — the same question, the opposite answer.

  • 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.

Build it higher and the whole house stays correct: the frame, the floor, the two sides, the partition, the fires that can still be dropped. What runs out is the tree. A wanbon narrows as it rises, and past a point the trunk where the floor is framed in is no longer thick enough to carry it. It is the only refutation in this project whose two numbers belong to different parties: the height is the household’s, the taper is the tree’s, and no amount of care on the builder’s side moves the second one at all.

The house as built

pass22.0 m / 554 mm / 280 mmheight of the floor · trunk at that height · bearing limit

A diameter of 950 mm at the ground becomes 554 mm at 22.0 m, against a limit of 280 mm. The height is the household’s; the taper belongs to the tree. Nothing ties those two numbers together.

Rear prow raised to 37.4 m

fail37.4 m / 277 mm / 280 mmheight of the floor · trunk at that height · bearing limit

the diameter is down to 277 mm at 37.4 m, and the limit is 280 mm

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.