Investigations on Earthquake Damages of Trajumas Hall in the Sultan's Palace Yogyakarta

Abstract

The Yogyakarta earthquake on 27th May 2006 has caused many damaged building, including Trajumas Hall in the Sultan's Palace of Yogyakarta. The destruction of this hall by the earthquake, therefore, was quite surprising since many buildings with similar shape; size and structural system nearby were in good condition. Kraton or the Sultan's Palace of Yogyakarta—a royal compound consisting of around a hundred timber structured buildings—remained intact except one, Trajumas Hall which was totally collapsed during the earthquake. One explanation for the fragile state of this building was the previous conservation of Trajumas hall was carried out haphazardly causing the wakening of many construction joints. In this paper, the investigation result shows several reasons that make it collapse were: 1) Recoding of building structural ruins was not appropriate, 2) Lack of knowledge of traditional building construction details, 3) The use of substitute materials in the reconstruction process does not consider material mechanic aspects. The knowledge of traditional building construction details should be carefully considered since one significant detail may cause major changes in the entire plan. Detailed documentation including the reasoning for some significant decision in a conservation process is very importance since it will give understanding on the future conservation process and for the treatment of other similar buildings.