Sustainable Construction of Wetland Stilt House in Indonesia

Abstract

AbstractThe stilt house is one of Indonesia’s traditional architectures renowned for its ability to withstand wetland environments since ancient times. This paper then aims to discuss the uniqueness of stilt house construction on each wetlands area in Indonesia and draw conclusions about which construction elements can affecting the stilt house’s durability. The method used in this research is a literature study. The literature on wetland and wooden house construction will be discussed at the beginning and used to classify the construction used on stilt houses in each wetland area in Indonesia. From each wetland area, it is found that stilt houses use several types of constructions. The stilt house with pedestal foundation uses rigid pillar type called continued pillars. In contrast, the stilt house with pile foundation uses a more flexible type of pillars such as discontinued pillars or a combination of continued and discontinued pillars. The choice of pillar types and foundations compatible with their wetlands context can make the stilt house durability last longer. This is one of the evidence of local people’s knowledge turns out bringing sustainability values that can make them survive in a long time.KeywordsSustainable constructionVernacularWetlandsStilt house