A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
The Complexity of Orientation in Traditional Village Architecture in Bali, Indonesia
The uniqueness of Balinese architecture has enabled Balinese culture to assertitself amidst the strong influence of modernization and globalization. TheBalinese people still adhere to the principles of Balinese architecture, cosmology,topography, and orientation. Recent studies have uncovered how different naturaltopographies inform the philosophical understanding of the layout of ruralvillages. Bali’s famous settlement layout specifically draws upon the imaginaryline of the Mountain-Sea axis, locally named kaja-kelod. This term is widelyused by the native Balinese, translated kaja for north and kelod for south. Whenthe first settlements developed, the secondary axis was naturally created, theso-called kangin-kauh, which refers to the direction of the sun: kangin (east) iswhere the sun rises and kauh (west) is where the sun sets. These two imaginaryaxes have been implemented in today’s modern designs and have become themost fundamental concept in town planning and rural and architectural designin Bali. In addition to exploring the influence of this popular understanding oftraditional Balinese architecture, this research discovered that the philosophicaluse of these imaginary axes is more complicated as these not only refer to theMountain-Sea axis (kaja-kelod) or sun direction (kangin-kauh). More than 30layouts of Bali villages categorized as “traditional” were studied utilizing thehermeneutic approach, framed by cosmology and morphology. The findings areas follows: (1) the direction of kaja does not necessarily indicate orientationtowards the mountain nor always mean north. For some villages, this term refersto the orientation towards sacred structures or sites, or main roads; (2) whilekelod commonly means south and the direction towards lower sea level, thefindings show that few villages referred to the term to identify the nearest lake’sorientation; (3) the direction of kangin-kauh (east-west) does not always refer tothe linear direction of sunrise-sunset because some villages replaced the use ofthe east-west axis with the interchangeable “right-left orientation” of the kaja;and (4) the kaja direction is the most critical direction for most villages in thestudy.
The Complexity of Orientation in Traditional Village Architecture in Bali, Indonesia
The uniqueness of Balinese architecture has enabled Balinese culture to assertitself amidst the strong influence of modernization and globalization. TheBalinese people still adhere to the principles of Balinese architecture, cosmology,topography, and orientation. Recent studies have uncovered how different naturaltopographies inform the philosophical understanding of the layout of ruralvillages. Bali’s famous settlement layout specifically draws upon the imaginaryline of the Mountain-Sea axis, locally named kaja-kelod. This term is widelyused by the native Balinese, translated kaja for north and kelod for south. Whenthe first settlements developed, the secondary axis was naturally created, theso-called kangin-kauh, which refers to the direction of the sun: kangin (east) iswhere the sun rises and kauh (west) is where the sun sets. These two imaginaryaxes have been implemented in today’s modern designs and have become themost fundamental concept in town planning and rural and architectural designin Bali. In addition to exploring the influence of this popular understanding oftraditional Balinese architecture, this research discovered that the philosophicaluse of these imaginary axes is more complicated as these not only refer to theMountain-Sea axis (kaja-kelod) or sun direction (kangin-kauh). More than 30layouts of Bali villages categorized as “traditional” were studied utilizing thehermeneutic approach, framed by cosmology and morphology. The findings areas follows: (1) the direction of kaja does not necessarily indicate orientationtowards the mountain nor always mean north. For some villages, this term refersto the orientation towards sacred structures or sites, or main roads; (2) whilekelod commonly means south and the direction towards lower sea level, thefindings show that few villages referred to the term to identify the nearest lake’sorientation; (3) the direction of kangin-kauh (east-west) does not always refer tothe linear direction of sunrise-sunset because some villages replaced the use ofthe east-west axis with the interchangeable “right-left orientation” of the kaja;and (4) the kaja direction is the most critical direction for most villages in thestudy.
The Complexity of Orientation in Traditional Village Architecture in Bali, Indonesia
Paramadhyaksa, I Nyoman Widya (author) / Dwijendra, Ngakan Ketut Acwin (author)
2021-06-29
Humanities Diliman: A Philippine Journal of Humanities; Vol 18, No 1 (2021) ; 2012-0788 ; 1655-1532
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
720
| BASE | 2019
| DOAJ | 2016