Rumah limas

Palembang, South Sumatra

A rumah limas is the house of Palembang: a broad raised building under a limas roof, and inside it one room whose floor rises in steps from front to back. Those steps — the kekijing — are why this building is here. Where a guest is seated on that sequence is their standing, so the social fact is not something a dimension is derived from; it is a height, in metres. It is also the only house here whose two plan axes say different things: its depth is social, its width is merely size. The sun in this model is computed for Palembang, 2.98° S and 104.76° E.

The most loaded number here is also the least supported. The sources describe the kekijing sequence, name the levels and say who sits where; none gives the height of one step. So how sharply this household distinguishes between its guests — the one thing this building actually states — is a figure the author invented. Beyond that: a three-step house here keeps the first, middle and last levels, and which two are dropped is the author’s choice; the names and uses of the levels are given as the sources give them, without detailing ritual; there is no carving at all, though a rumah limas is carved; and not one figure here comes from a measurement.