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ABSTRACT
A house can be defined as merely a dwelling, or beyond. Further, it is a unique association of people, culture, and technology; since its creation is often derived from the basic understanding of the user (people), the habit (culture), and the building technology. The basic idea of this house is to create a sustainable living space using bamboo as an ignored indigenous material. This house featured bamboo as the main building material since it has become one of the most famous indigenous materials in West-Java for ages. For the Sundanese, bamboo is the expression of their creative well-being through the art of craftsmanship. As a building material, bamboo is considered as one of the sustainable materials for its renewability, restorability, and versatility. It is also well-known for its forming flexibility, resistance of earthquake, low construction cost, and its abundance. In this house, bamboo is utilized both as structural and ornamental elements used in interior and exterior of the house as column, flooring, wall, stairs, and blinds. Its combination with modern materials (concrete, masonry, steel) creates a rich visual experience within the house. To create a sustainable building is to ensure its sustainability capability in its design process, construction methods, and materials used furthermore, in its ability of altering the users lifestyle subtly. Designed as an eco-responsive building, the house was planned to have minimum interference with the nature. The 9 existing 37 years old clove trees within the site are preserved and the buildings ground level is elevated. This house is managed to use the natural air flow and lighting, taking advantage from the abundant sunlight of tropical area and fresh natural mountain breeze. By preserving the bamboo-tradition, the house is also inexplicitly preserving the collective creativity of its native society. Keywords: house, bamboo, environment-friendly, indigenous material, sustainable material, collective creativity
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH
Arte-Polis 3 International Confe ference on Creative Collaboration and the Making M of Place
Figure 1 Traditional House in Ka ampung Naga, Gar rut, West Java Source: Kin nasih 2009
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH K
Arte-Polis 3 International Confe ference on Creative Collaboration and the Making M of Place
Bamboo has an importan nt role in ecology y. Its rhizome roo ot system charac cteristics enable bamboo b to protec ct the hydrologic c system bindi ing the soil and water thus, it is i classified as a conservation pl lant. Bamboo cu ultivation can gen nerate a micro-climate for its sur rrounding. Whils st in the larger sc cale and in an adequate a timing, it is categorized d as a complete e ecosystem-unit t. The condition n within bamboo forest allows the e microorganisms s to grow in a sym mbiotic relationsh hip with other fo ood-chain-networ rk. The Environ nmental Bambo oo Foundation in i their webpage e stated that bam mboo is the fastes st growing canop py for the re-gree ening of degraded d lands, a peerles ss erosion control agent, a high-yield renewable re esource, and one of the strongest building materia als. Moreover, the e bamboo stands s release 35 % mo ore oxygen than equivalent e stands s of trees. It is a very v effective cul ltivation for water r conservation, si ince it is able to absorb 90% of ra ain water when th he other average trees t are only abl le to absorb 35 40%. Not unti il recently has bamboo b ever con nsidered as a mo odern building material. m Previous sly bamboos im mage is always s correlated with poor mans s house materials s. However, no owadays as cl laimed by Jean Dethier in his essay bamboo has become the future f building material m in a new architectural mov vement. It is bam mboo which bring gs together archit tects of the developing countries as a equal partner with w their counter rpart in the devel loping world. Although its versati ility has been pop pular for centurie es, its capability to t be used as a modern m building material m is often questioned. Ba amboo is consid dered as a non-durable materia al. It is vulnerab ble to the biotic damages: fungi i, bugs, termites s, worms. Bamb boo is a renewable, restorative, an nd versatile build ding material.3 It is stronger than wood w or timber in tension and compression. c In fact, the tensile e-strength of a vascular v bundle bamboo-fiber b is almost a twice as much m as the steel. Furthermore, du uring the Hiroshim ma bombing in 19 945, bamboo is th he only plant sur rvived from the ra adiation of the ato omic bomb, when n the others were e devastated. Acc cording to Oscar Hidalgo H (2003) the most promi inent bamboo res searcher bamboo can replace wood w or timber in i all their applications, but we e cannot use wo ood or timber to make structure es that can only be made with bamboo. Its pipe-shaped form ena ables to increase its inertia. Thus s, bamboo is rela atively able to bear b the torsion-m moment xible and elastic nature confirms bamboo-structur re as an well. In addition, its flex earthqua ake and wind resistant struct ture. Although dealing with certain inadequa acies non-dura able, vulnerable to biotic damag ges certain res searches have be een conducted to t develop meth hods of bamboo o-strength-enhan ncement. Bamboo can now be used d not only in its basic b forms (whole-bamboo, cut-b bamboo, and wea aved-bamboo) bu ut also in compo osite forms (com mposite panels, multiplem bamboo/ /plyboo, bamboo o particle board, plastered bamb boo, bamboo bea am, and busaron) ).
Fi igure 2 Bamboo Pa article Board (left) and Composite Ba amboo Beam (right t) Source: Mor risco (2009)
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH K
Architecture is a language, a physical expression of custom, habit, trend, culture, and even authority. It is a cultural record from the tapestry of humankind. In order to take a part in applying the sustainable-lifestyle, a house is a good example to begin. A house is one of human basic needs besides food and clothing. As the smallest unit of the neighborhood, it has become a place where we learn our first moralities. In regard to environmental awareness, building design, construction methods, and building materials can play an active role in coping with the global environmental degradation. We can start sharing the lifestyle with our children from their very own early-ages in our own house. We must, then, teach them: how to conserve water; how to recycle rainwater; how to put plastic; glass, paper and organic waste into different garbage bins; how to plant vegetables and specific plants for medicine; how to collect falling leaves and mix them with organic waste for composting. Thus, designing a sustainable house not only deals with physical terms but also deal with a sustainable lifestyle. Our own house is a perfect place to start.
Figure 3 Site Plan of Eco-Pesantren Daarut Figure 4 The Bamboo House Tauhiid Source: Faisal 2009
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH
The Bamboo House was designed on the 622 m2 piece of land, with the main entrance facing south. The 9 (nine) existing 37 years old clove trees are remain preserved in site and also become part of the houses design. To respect the existing clove trees, the building mass is divided into 2 (two) three-storey-masses, connected by a bridge and a porch. The first mass consists of 2 bedrooms including the master bedroom, kitchen & dining area, pantry, living room, and a studio, whilst the other part of the house comprises 2 childrens bedrooms.
Figure 5 The Nine Existing 37 Years Old Figure 6 Rural Area View in the Clove Trees Neighboring Area Source: Faisal 2009
Figure 7 Ground Floor Plan (left) & 2nd Floor Plan (Right) Source: Faisal 2009
This three storey house is facing south and adapting the sustainable concepts in its design not only in its air, water and waste handling, but also the material selection. The house uses bamboo as the indigenous sustainable material for its main material selection. The material is used extensively and innovatively, not only as a matter of exterior/interior decorations but also as the structural elements, including plastered bamboo walls and composite bamboo for columns, retaining wall and floorings. Although the bamboo traditional construction has been used for centuries in West-Java, it has gradually been replaced by modern construction; therefore, in the beginning of the construction, the architect himself refreshed the labors to do the construction work, especially when bamboo is combined with new/modern materials.
Figure 10 Bamboo Parquette for Flooring Figure 11 Plastered Bamboo Wall Source: Faisal 2009
In this house, traditional bamboo weaving is used for plastered wall and for divider panels. Modern bamboo weaving is also entailed as kitchen back-splash, ceilings, and fence as well as treated as wallpaper. It is interesting to note that all traditional bamboo weaving can easily be done by common labor, meaning the craftsmanship the skills and the knowledge still exist in the society. Although modern bamboo weaving with new specific design can only be constructed by people who lived in remote areas in Southern Bandung, it doesnt mean that common labor cannot do the modern waving. The common labors usually object to put more effort on the new design because they need to allocate more craftingtimes.
Figure 12 Modern Bamboo for Kitchen Figure 13 Modern Bamboo Weaving for Back-splash Wallpaper Source: Faisal 2009
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH
Besides using bamboo as the main material, this house also utilizing second-hand materials for many purposes, those are: plywood, steel roofing, doors, beams, windows, and window-frames. Most of these materials are collected from old Dutch building remnants around Bandung City. In fact, surprisingly most of the time, the quality of second-hand materials are better than the new one. The reduction in use of new materials creates a corresponding reduction in embodied energy (energy used in the production of materials).8 Accordingly, utilization of second-hand materials becomes one of the green-building-design principles.
Figure 15 Second-Hand Materials Used in the Bamboo House (rasamala wood, window frames, particle board, roof shingles, etched glass, steel) Source: Faisal 2009
As an eco-responsive house, the Bamboo House was made to have minimum contact with the existing nature. This is shown by the elevated floor decking to minimize buildings coverage and contact with existing soil. Located in Bandung, Indonesia has also made the house gifted by abundance sunlight, heavy rain water, and high level of humidity, as any other places in the tropical areas. Thus, the house has wide wall-openings to optimize the natural-day-lighting from the sunlight during the daytimes. As another treatment to optimize the abundance of tropical sunlight and heavy rain water, this house is planned to be equipped with solar panels and rainwater harvesting unit. Black water from the septic tank and
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH
grey water from the kitchen and bathroom is designed to be filtered biologically in the constructed wetland before its overflow go into the city drainage.
Figure 16 The Extensive Use of Bamboo: Blinds, Stairs, Ceilings, Wall, Door Source: Faisal 2009
CONCLUSION
This house is trying to show us, how bamboo the ignored indigenous material can be utilized up to its extreme possibilities, not only for decorative uses but also for structural purposes. In other hand, instead of casting or burning the secondhand materials into the wasteland, this house use them in a very eloquent way, thus they significantly enrich the final outlook of this house. The ignorance of preserving craftsmanship in our modern life must become our collective concern because craftsmanship is the expression of communities creativity. It is an accumulative proved skills and knowledge. We strongly need to preserve it; otherwise, we will lose one of the most precious cultural heritages in our lives. We will be alienated from our own history before finally losing our identities. In this regard, exploring the art of bamboo in this house is a noble effort. This house simply shows us how culture meets nature, how man-made religiously respect God-made, how the design of this house humbly interweaving within the 9 (nine) existing 37 years old clove trees. As a matter of fact, this is the very essence of the co-existence itself. Moreover, the Bamboo House is an articulated example of building a sustainable thoroughly, not only sustainable by design it is also socially sustainable. The house shows that sustainability is a word beyond physical impact. It is related both with nature and culture. By preserving the bamboo-tradition among its native Sundanese society, the house is also inexplicitly preserving the collective creativity of the cultural community.
Ph.D. Budi FAISAL; S.T, Putri KINASIH
10
ENDNOTES
[1] (Widjaja, Keragaman Bambu dan Potensinya untuk Kehidupan Modern, 2009, pp. 1-2) [2] (Widjaja, State of The Art of Indonesia Bamboo, 2003, p. 3) [3] (Purwito, 2009) [4] (Steele, 1997) [5] (Tanuwidjaja, 2010) [6] (Arif, Permanasari, & Badil, 2009) [7] (Snyder & Catanese, 1979) [8] (Wikipedia, 2010)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARIF, Ahmad, PERMANASARI, Indira, & BADIL, Rudi (2009). Hidup Hirau Hijau. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. LOPEZ, Oscar H. (2003). Bamboo, the Gift of the Gods. Bogota: D'Vinni Ltda. MORISCO. (2009). Karakteristik dan Implementasi Bambu dalam Struktur Bangunan Modern. 2. PURWITO. (2009). Pengolahan & Produk Turunan Bambu Sebagai Material Alternatif. 1. SNYDER, James C., & Catanese, A. J. (1979). Introduction to Architecture. NY: McGraw-Hill. STEELE, James (1997). Sustainable Architecture. NY: McGraw-Hill. TANUWIDJAJA, Gunawan (2010, April 19). Green Impact Indonesia. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from Wordpress: http://greenimpactindo.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/%E2%80%9Csustainabl e-architecture%E2%80%9D-berapa-hijaukah-rumahku/ VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM. (2004). Grow Your Own House. Simon Velez and Bamboo Architecture . WIDJAJA, Elizabeth A. (2009). Keragaman Bambu dan Potensinya untuk Kehidupan Modern. Bamboo Festival: Bamboo for Modern Life (pp. 1-2). Bandung: Asri. WIDJAJA, Elizabeth A. (2003). State of The Art of Indonesia Bamboo. Retrieved November 2006, from CGIAR: http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/Publications/HTMLPublications/572/ch25.htm Wikipedia. (2010, April 15). Retrieved April 21, 2010, from Sustainable Architecture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_architecture