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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
soaBay2.60 mIf 20% out: 2.60 mInterpolatedLength of one bay of floor for one soa. The building’s length is this figure times the number of clans: the plan is a census like the rumah betang’s — except that what is counted is not the families living inside but the clans entitled to sit inside.No source
halfWidth4.20 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHalf-width of the floor. Fixed: what grows with the number of soa is the length alone.No source
floorHeight1.55 mIf 20% out: 0.31 mInterpolatedHeight of the floor above the ground. High enough to be seen into from outside and low enough to be heard from outside — two requirements pulling opposite ways, and the figure is the author’s.No source
floorThickness0.07 mIf 20% out: 0.01 mInterpolatedThickness of the board floor.No source
postSection0.24 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a principal post. Each soa has a pair, and none is larger than another.No source
stoneHeight0.22 mIf 20% out: 0.04 mInterpolatedHeight of the pad stone a post foot stands on.No source
stoneWidth0.45 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of that pad stone.No source
bearerDepth0.26 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of a floor bearer.No source
bearerWidth0.15 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of a floor bearer.No source
postHeight2.40 mIf 20% out: 0.48 mInterpolatedHeight of a post above the floor, to its head. This whole distance is open on all four sides, and that is the building: what is decided inside is visible and audible from outside.No source
screenHeight0.55 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the low screen between the posts, where there is one. Knee height: it stops a person falling and stops no sight line at all. Raise this figure past the eye of a person standing outside and the building stops being an open one — which is its counterexample.No source
screenThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of that screen board.No source
seatedEye1.20 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedEye height of a person seated in their place, measured from the floor. Not a dimension of the building but of the person who has to be visible from outside — and a dimension for exactly that reason: this figure is what decides what may stand between the posts. Let the screen rise past it and a seated saniri is no longer in view, and the building stops doing the one thing that made it this shape.No source
seatWidth1.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of one soa’s seat. The same for every one, and that sameness is not a drawing convenience: the Palembang rumah limas states standing by raising its floor, and this building states equality by refusing to.No source
seatDepth0.55 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of that seat.No source
seatHeight0.42 mIf 20% out: 0.08 mInterpolatedHeight of a seat above the floor. One figure for every soa: nobody sits higher.No source
ridgeRise3.40 mIf 20% out: 0.68 mInterpolatedRise of the ridge above the post heads. A baileo’s roof is large and heavy over a building with no walls, and that proportion is what makes it read as a public building rather than as a shelter.No source
eaveOversail1.40 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the overhang. Long, because there is no wall to keep the rain out: what keeps the floor dry is a roof reaching well past it.No source
rafterSection0.10 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of a rafter.No source
plateSection0.16 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of the plate on the post heads.No source
thatchCourseDepth0.24 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedExposed depth of one course of sago thatch.No source
thatchThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far a course stands proud of the one below.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
pamaliRadius0.62 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRadius of the batu pamali. That it exists and that this building stands in relation to it is canon; its size is the author’s, and a real stone is not round.No source
pamaliHeight0.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of that stone above the ground.No source
pamaliOffset3.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far in front of the building the stone stands, when it stands outside.No source
stairWidth1.50 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the entry stair.No source
treadDepth0.29 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of one tread.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
belongsToNobody1Moves no measurementCanonA baileo is the negeri’s house and nobody’s. No one sleeps in it and no household owns it: it is where the saniri sits and where the ancestors are addressed. The other fourteen buildings in this project belong to a household; this is the only one that belongs to no one.Cooley, F. L., Ambonese Adat: A General Description (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, New Haven, 1962).
onePlaceEachSoa1Moves no measurementCanonEvery soa has one place, and all the places are the same. The number of soa sets the number of floor bays, pairs of posts and seats — a tally, like the tongkonan’s horns and the betang’s bilik, but a tally of a community rather than of a household.Lokollo, J. E., dkk., Seri Budaya Hukum Adat: Sasi dan Baileo di Maluku Tengah (Universitas Pattimura, Ambon, 1997).
openOnAllSides1Moves no measurementCanonA baileo has no walls. What is decided inside must be visible and audible from outside, so the openness is a political rule rather than a climatic one — and it is measured against the eye height of a person standing on the ground rather than against the presence or absence of boards.Lokollo, J. E., dkk., Seri Budaya Hukum Adat: Sasi dan Baileo di Maluku Tengah (Universitas Pattimura, Ambon, 1997).
oneFloorNoStorey1Moves no measurementCanonOne floor, one plane, no loft and no step. The soa sit as peers, so nobody is above anybody. Set it against the rumah limas, which states standing by raising its floor.Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Maluku (Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah, Jakarta).
standsWithTheStone1Moves no measurementCanonThe batu pamali stands in front of the baileo — or inside it, with the floor left open around it so the stone still touches the earth. The building stands in relation to that stone, and never over it.Cooley, F. L., Ambonese Adat: A General Description (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, New Haven, 1962).

Bibliography

  • cooley-1962 · ethnography

    Cooley, F. L., Ambonese Adat: A General Description (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, New Haven, 1962).

  • lokollo-1997 · ethnography

    Lokollo, J. E., dkk., Seri Budaya Hukum Adat: Sasi dan Baileo di Maluku Tengah (Universitas Pattimura, Ambon, 1997).

  • depdikbud-maluku · reference

    Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Maluku (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. 1soaBay2.60 mlength of the building
  2. 2ridgeRise0.68 mheight of the ridge
  3. 3postHeight0.48 mheight of the post heads
  4. 4floorHeight0.31 mheight of the post heads
  5. 5seatHeight0.08 mheight of a seat
  6. 6stoneHeight0.04 mheight of the post heads
  7. 7floorThickness0.01 mheight of the open band

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 long mid-plane, z = 0

    920 points; largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.

  • pass
    Every tenon contained in its mortise

    20 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

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

  • pass
    Mesh integrity: indices, triangles, normals

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

  • pass
    One bay, a pair of posts and a seat for every soa

    5 soa: 5 bays, 10 posts, 10 seats. The plan is a tally — not of the families living inside, as on the rumah betang, but of the clans entitled to sit inside.

  • pass
    Every seat is the same, and the floor is one plane

    10 seats of one size and one height, on a single floor at 1.84 m. The Palembang rumah limas states standing by raising its floor; this building states equality by refusing to.

  • pass
    Open on all four sides, at the eye height of somebody seated inside

    Nothing but posts stands between the floor and 1.20 m above it; the screen stops at 0.55 m. What is decided inside is visible from outside, and that is a political rule rather than a climatic one.

  • pass
    Nothing is built over the pamali stone

    The stone stands 3.60 m in front of the building, outside the reach of the eave.

  • pass
    Thatch courses lap with no bare band

    27 courses from eave to ridge, with a 1.40 m overhang — long, because there is no wall to keep the rain out.

  • pass
    Every part declares the dimensions it came from

    88 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 88 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 the screen and nothing falls down. The posts still stand, the floor is still one plane, the seats are still equal, the roof still laps and still sheds. The only thing that stops being true is that a person seated in their place can be seen from outside — so a building whose entire form is an argument about visible decisions goes on making that argument to somebody who cannot see it. And what defeats it is a handrail: the first thing anybody would fit to a floor two metres in the air with children on it.

The house as built

pass0.55 m / 1.20 mheight of the screen · eye of a seated person

Nothing but posts stands between the floor and 1.20 m above it; the screen stops at 0.55 m. What is decided inside is visible from outside, and that is a political rule rather than a climatic one.

Rear prow raised to 1.21 m

fail1.21 m / 1.20 mheight of the screen · eye of a seated person

3 parts rise 1.21 m above the floor, past the eye of somebody seated at 1.20 m: sekat-b, sekat-a, sekat-belakang

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.