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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
width8.40 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the uma, across.No source
shareLength2.90 mIf 20% out: 2.90 mInterpolatedLength of floor for each household in the closed room. The same for every one of them, and none is larger than another.No source
frontDepth6.20 mIf 20% out: 1.24 mInterpolatedDepth of the front veranda, where anybody may come and where decisions are taken.No source
backDepth3.60 mIf 20% out: 0.72 mInterpolatedDepth of the back veranda, where the women work and where outsiders do not go.No source
floorHeight1.05 mIf 20% out: 0.21 mInterpolatedHeight of the floor above the ground, on ironwood posts standing on stones.No source
postSection0.24 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSection of an ironwood post.No source
padHeight0.28 mIf 20% out: 0.06 mInterpolatedHeight of the river stone under a post. Nothing is buried: the frame stands on them, on an island that shakes often.No source
padSocket0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the hollow in the stone the foot of a post sits in. Without it the post only touches its stone on one plane, and a joint whose members do not enter each other holds nothing.No source
jaraikOverlap0.06 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHow far the jaraik board reaches up into the roofing that carries it. It hangs rather than stands, so it has to actually engage the roof.No source
bearerDepth0.18 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of a floor bearer.No source
bearerSpacing1.55 mIf 20% out: 0.31 mInterpolatedSpacing of the bearers, and therefore the clear span of a floor plank.No source
plankSpan1.80 mIf 20% out: 0.36 mInterpolatedThe furthest a split plank crosses without support in the middle. An uma’s floor is danced on: it is meant to spring, and springing is not the same as failing.No source
plankThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a floor plank.No source
wallHeight2.15 mIf 20% out: 0.43 mInterpolatedHeight of the board wall of the closed room.No source
wallThickness0.05 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of a wall board.No source
eaveHeight1.60 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the eave over the verandas, which have no walls: the roof comes down low and that is all the wall they have.No source
roofRise3.10 mIf 20% out: 0.62 mInterpolatedRise of the ridge above the wall.No source
eaveOversail1.15 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedOverhang of the sago-leaf roof.No source
roofThickness0.14 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the sago-leaf roofing.No source
hearthSide0.95 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedSide of a household’s hearth.No source
hearthHeight0.16 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the sand box of a hearth.No source
jaraikHeight1.35 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedHeight of the jaraik board hanging in the front veranda.No source
jaraikWidth1.10 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the jaraik board.No source
jaraikThickness0.06 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedThickness of the jaraik board.No source
clearingRadius16.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedRadius of ground cleared around the uma, beside the river that is its road.No source
riverWidth11.00 mMoves no measurementInterpolatedWidth of the river in front of the house. On Siberut the river is the road, and the house faces it.No source
jointEngagement0.30Moves no measurementInterpolatedDepth of the tested joint engagement, as a share of the smaller member.No source
nobodyIsSenior0Moves no measurementCanonZero chiefs. The rimata leads ritual and does not command, and decisions are taken together on the front veranda. No household gets a larger share, a better place, a raised seat, or an end of its own. This cannot be checked by any model: a building that genuinely has no rank and a building whose rank nobody modelled are the same model. The pack checks what can be checked and states the rest as a claim rather than a verdict.Schefold, R., Lia: Das grosse Ritual auf den Mentawai-Inseln (Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1988).
gradedByActivity1Moves no measurementCanonThe space is graded front to back — front veranda, closed room, back veranda — and the grade follows what is being done rather than who is doing it. A Palembang rumah limas is graded along the same axis, and there where a guest is seated is their standing. The same section, two opposite claims.Reeves, G., “The Sakuddei of Siberut”, in Indonesian Heritage: Architecture (Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2001).
theRecordIsShared1Moves no measurementCanonOne jaraik for the whole house, hanging in the front veranda, carrying the record of what the uma has hunted. A Nias behu records one household’s feast and a Bugis timpa laja one household’s rank; this is the only record in the collection that belongs to nobody in particular.Schefold, R., Lia: Das grosse Ritual auf den Mentawai-Inseln (Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1988).
theFloorIsDancedOn1Moves no measurementCanonThe veranda floor is danced on for turuk, so it is laid as planks over bearers with nothing under the middle of a span: it is meant to spring. That puts a limit on how far apart the bearers may be — the only figure in this pack that comes from what people do on the floor.Reeves, G., “The Sakuddei of Siberut”, in Indonesian Heritage: Architecture (Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2001).

Bibliography

  • schefold-1988 · ethnography

    Schefold, R., Lia: Das grosse Ritual auf den Mentawai-Inseln (Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1988).

  • reeves-2001 · reference

    Reeves, G., “The Sakuddei of Siberut”, in Indonesian Heritage: Architecture (Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2001).

  • depdikbud-1986 · reference

    Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Sumatera Barat (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. 1shareLength2.90 mlength of the house
  2. 2frontDepth1.24 mdepth of the front veranda
  3. 3backDepth0.72 mlength of the house
  4. 4roofRise0.62 mheight of the ridge
  5. 5wallHeight0.43 mheight of the ridge
  6. 6plankSpan0.36 mspan left in a floor plank
  7. 7bearerSpacing0.31 mspan left in a floor plank
  8. 8floorHeight0.21 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 plane of the ridge, x = 0 — and deliberately not along its length, because front and back are used differently

    784 points; largest mirror deviation 0.00 mm.

  • pass
    Every tenon contained in its mortise

    35 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

    97 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
    Every household has the same share

    5 shares of 2.90 m each, with hearths of one size at one spacing. All this check can say is that nothing inside the model distinguishes one household from another; that nothing outside it does either is this pack’s claim rather than its verdict.

  • pass
    The front veranda is open, with no wall at all

    6.2 m of open floor facing the river: no wall, no partition, nothing across it. That is where anybody may come and where this house takes its decisions.

  • pass
    One record, and it belongs to the house

    One jaraik, on the centre line, hanging in the open veranda where everybody is — not inside any household’s share. A Nias behu records one household’s feast and a Bugis timpa laja one household’s rank; this one records nobody in particular.

  • pass
    The planks cross the space between the bearers

    The bearers stand 1.55 m apart and a plank crosses 1.80 m. This floor is danced on for turuk: it is meant to spring, and that is exactly what bounds the spacing. The spacing is the builder’s decision, the span belongs to the timber, and nothing relates them.

  • pass
    Every part declares the dimensions it came from

    97 parts, every one tagged. By least-sourced input: 0 measured, 0 canon, 97 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.

Standing the bearers further apart is what this floor wants. Its veranda is danced on: turuk asks for a long clear floor with plenty of spring in it, and fewer bearers give both. No other part objects — the posts still carry, every household’s share is still equal, the front is still open, the roof still covers the whole length. What runs out is the plank: past a point a split board no longer crosses from one bearer to the next, and a floor that springs has become a floor that gives way — the same event for everybody standing on it, and a very different one afterwards.

The house as built

pass1.55 m / 1.80 mspace between bearers · what a plank crosses

The bearers stand 1.55 m apart and a plank crosses 1.80 m. This floor is danced on for turuk: it is meant to spring, and that is exactly what bounds the spacing. The spacing is the builder’s decision, the span belongs to the timber, and nothing relates them.

Rear prow raised to 1.81 m

fail1.81 m / 1.80 mspace between bearers · what a plank crosses

the bearers stand 1.81 m apart and a plank only crosses 1.80 m

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.