Traditional House Of North Sumatera
According to the record Medan was established by Raja Guru Patimpus in 1590, between the river of Deli and Babura, which is now near Jalan Putri Hijau. From the name of the founder it is no doubt that he was influenced by Indian culture. The name of raja means king, and guru means master or teacher, while Patimpus is a local name. By 16th century it is known that in North Sumatra exist 2 kingdoms, one was Aceh and the other is Deli. Deli is the beginning of todays Medan city. During 16th century to 17th century it is recorded that between Aceh and Deli always struggle for emporium. The Deli capital of the kingdom according the British who visited the area in 1823 found it was still a village with only 200 people.
In the turn of 19th century the Dutch seized the land and made it as colonial area. Knowing the great potential of the land vast size and incomparable fertile, a Dutch enterprise developed an estate of tobacco growing. Later not only tobacco but also pepper, rubber, coffee, palm oil, tea, and mining. These enterprises developed between 1865 to 1900. One of the most important plantation estate is the Pabatu coffle estate which is still can be seen until now. Medan soon sprang into busy town reaching 100.000 population by 1900 within only less then a decade. The development of Medan into giant city was encouraged by the plantation estates that needs labors. Many labors were imported from China, Java and Kalimantan, beside local people who previously lived on the highland. With this development of the city after the independence of Indoneia continued to received new comers make the city as the 3rd biggest city in Indonesia to reach 2 million population by the turn of 21th century, and giving the city a cosmopolitan character.
Aceh Traditional House
The traditional house of the Aceh Province is called Rumah Aceh. The Acehnese houses always face north or south.
Along the peripheries of Banda Aceh, houses are usually compact wooden structures of a post-and-beam or H-structure, set ontop of flat, natural stones that are placed underneath each post. They are also known as “high houses” and are built onto tall posts to protect against animal attacks and flooding. No nails are used in the construction of Acehnese houses.
Floors are made of wooden planks or rattan of feather palm; thin, interlaced sections of split bamboo or coconut leaves make up the walls, and sago palm leaves or corrugated iron cover the steeply pitched roofs.
The house is divided into three sections:
- Front section [front verandah] : a wide room that stretches the entire length of the house, approached by a set of stairs at the front of the house .
- Middle section : usually composed of a corridor that connects the front and back sections of the houses, and flanked by bedrooms at its sides. The middle section is slightly higher in elevation than the front and back portions of the house (about half a meter).
- Back section : the most private section of the house (family room), where cooking usually takes place.
Symbolism was also incorporated into the design of an Acehnese house. The upper attic space represented the upper world or heaven, the middle living floor represented the middle world, and the bottom storage area represented the underworld.
The main frame of the house is usually erected with aid of communal labor and supervised by the village elders, religious leaders, and a master builder. To begin, the site must be prepared and blessed. An Acehnese home owner is most likely to be a woman. In Achnese tradition, when a daughter is married, her father gives her a separate dwelling. If the family is too poor, an annex will be erected onto their house.
Bali Traditional House
Speaking about Balinese house there are at least 3 types of architecturally observable. First, is the house compound which is consist of at least 4 pavilions plus a complex of family temple. Second is a standing alone house some time with a separate pavilion for kitchen, and the third is a housing complex, where rows of houses belong to a different families standing face to face at the left and right side of a slot of land. This third type a family usually has 2 houses, one as normal house and the other as kitchen. The first and second types are usually found at low land where people live with irrigation system. Their house compound or one standing house is normally enclosed by private wall with entrance gate called "angkul-angkul" The position of houses either in a dense complex or scattered in a long distance from one another. It is mostly built close one another except in some places which were supposed much later settlement. The third are where the houses are in a dense complex normally the settlement in highland. The area of a settlement is normally laid out on the right and left side of a main road. both on the right and left sides of the area is divided into many slots of land (courtyard ), in Balinese this slot is called " natah". In one natah some time consists of many families with the pattern of house of each family facing each other, as mentioned above. Most families on a natah usually originated from one single family who has been living for many generations, from a father and mother who had developed into many family units. When a village was first established it was probably close to the forest and to maintain the safety and security of the member they had probably form a close position to facilitate instant emergency contact. Seen from the structure of the houses regardless the types mentioned above seems that Balinese had not experienced any animal endangering since their house is low, in average 40 to 50 cm foundation's height from soil level. It is not like other ethnics such as Batak, Dayak, Toraja, Makassar, and others where their house is built on a high poles. In contrast, Balinese house showing an effort that it is equipped with anti magic elements. So it was probably in the past Balinese was more horrified by magic instead of real animal attack or might absence of this wild animal, as proved by biological study that Bali had ever only small leopard at west national park, it was already extinct in immemorial time. It was a belief that West Bali National Park was a lost city and until now is considered as the abode of invisible being. During rainy season the invisible being will go out far of their area to look for food materials. If they have to be visible to human being, they changed themselves into a tiger . But this is only a myth, and it was a prove that once a small species of leopard was ever living in West Bali National Park. A house for Balinese is an interwoven elements between super natural thoughts, land status, temples, cemetery, kinship, and social organization. Before proceeding to discuss about architectural style of the house we describe about these elements which also gives special characteristic to a house, especially the position and orientation. The following thoughts are considered in constructing a chouse.
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