Rumoh Aceh

The House of Cut Nyak Dhien, a sample of an Acehnese traditional house.

Acehnese traditional house (Acehnese Rumoh Aceh, "Aceh house") refers to the traditional vernacular architecture found in the Aceh Province. It is also known as the krong bade, which may actually refer to the rice granary (krōng, "storage" + padé, "rice") and not the house. It is basically a wooden pile dwelling. The Acehnese traditional house reflects the culture of the Acehnese people. These houses can still be found in the periphery of Banda Aceh although in the verge of extinction.

The house and its perimeter

The frontal side of a Rumoh Aceh, the main entrance stairways is visible, leading to a roofed front terrace.

The Acehnese traditional house is a pile dwelling erected over posts which rest on flat stones or concrete plinth. It is largely constructed of timbers, topped with a gabled roof which is covered with either thatched palm leaves or corrugated metal. The Acehnese traditional houses is found scattered in a traditional kampung with no specific pattern, however they are always aligned with its gables positioned toward the east and west. The exterior can be ornamented with woodcarvings of floral or geometric patterns, usually decorating the triangular gables, the windows and the boards. The triangular gable decoration consists of an ornamented triangular wooden screen which slant outwards and is perforated to allow cross ventilation. Entrance to the house is located in the non-gable sides, either on the north or the south side of the house. This entrance is a steep staircases leading to a roofed front terrace (Acehnese seulasa, "gallery"). The space below the house is used either for storing goods such as timber for construction, firewood, crops, or a bicycle; or for a resting area, with benches.

The house area is marked by a perimeter hedges or fences. Occasional trees provide shade into the house's courtyard. The rice granary (Acehnese krōng padé, "rice storage") is basically a small rice granary located under or beside the house. Unlike the rice granary of Java which keeps sheaves of rice, the rice granary of Aceh keeps unhusked rice.

Wealthier Acehnese may build a wooden gateway entrance (Acehnese keupaleh) at the entrance of the house area.

Interior layout

The Acehnese traditional house is always oriented with its gables side facing toward the east-west direction. The east-west direction may originally have a life-death - sacred-profane symbolism found anywhere in Indonesia, however after the Islamization of Aceh, the west direction is sometimes associated with the direction of Mecca. The interior of an Acehnese traditional house is divided into three: the front section (located on the whole northern or southern breadth of the house where an entrance stairs is located), the middle section (located on the entire middle breadth of the house), and the back section (similar with the front section but on the opposite direction). Different sections of the house are separated by wooden partition, the front section is connected with the back section via a corridor going through the middle section.

The front section (Acehnese seuramou keu, "front terrace") is basically a long spacious gallery. Steep entrance stairs connects the front section of the house with the outdoor. The Acehnese name of this section, the "front terrace" or "front veranda", refers to former times when this section used to be completely open. Nowadays, the section is completely enclosed with some windows. The front section is identified with the "male" realm of the house, a symbolism found throughout Indonesian archipelago to refer the section of a house where public-related activities, such as receiving guests, are held.

The back section (Acehnese seuramoe likoot, "back terrace") is basically similar with the front section which is a spacious long gallery, but with no main entrance. It is the most private part of the house where women of the house do their cooking activities. The back section is identified with the "female" realm associated with private family matter. The back section may be expanded to add more space for cooking (Acehnese rumoh dapu, "kitchen house").

The middle section (Acehnese rumah inong, "parental house") consists of a corridor connecting the front section and the back section through the center of the house, and bedrooms. Bedrooms are located on both side of this corridor, to the east and west, toward the gables. The bedrooms can be accessed from the back section via doorways. The entire middle section is built about half a meter higher than the front section and back section, the difference in elevation is clearly visible from the outside of the house. One of the bedroom functioned as the ceremonial nuptial chamber, where daughters and their husbands will reside during the first years of their marriage.

Construction

Traditional Acehnese house was made entirely of wood, with no nails. Traditionally the floor was made of planks of feather palm, the walls of thin woven bamboo, and the roof of a thatched sago palm leaves. The entire construction were erected over pile construction which stands on stones. The ground under the house has been compacted and made a bit higher than the area around the house, the soil is prevented from seeping away by edgings around this compacted soil. In the colonial era, the edgings were made of bottles planted into the ground bottom-up.

When a daughter reached seven years old, her father would begin to collect building materials to construct the house where she would live with her future husband. According to Acehnese custom, the girl had to live with her husband in the house of her mother until the first child was born. Afterwards she would have to moved to their own house within the compound of her mother. When the parents died, the daughter will acquired the rice fields and her parent's house.

House construction began with the erection of eight posts for the tallest middle section of the house, and then followed by the shorter posts for the front and back section. Two of the house posts were named "king post" and "queen post", both are located in the middle of the second row of posts from the front, the "king post" on the right side, the "queen post" on the left. A small piece of gold was inserted into the "queen post", either at the top of it or on one of the floor binders when mortised through the "queen post" and fixed by the wooden tenon. These posts were set as if they were still a living tree with its trunk base at the bottom and crown tip above. The last to be built were the roof plates. Ropes are used to fix the roof plates to the beams in such a way that it can be detached quickly in case of fire. Woodcarving decorations were not part of the construction phase as it was added later.

Determining the starting time of the construction is a crucial matter in Acehnese culture. The house owner would engage a traditional carpenter in the particular month thought to be the most auspicious to begin construction. Several customary rituals are carried out during the construction process: first when the carpenter began the work on the posts and beams, second when the erection of the house began, and third at the end of the construction. The first ceremony is sprinkling raw materials such as uncooked rice and water at the site, completed with a small meal. The second ceremony is a ceremonial meal for the assistants of the carpenter, usually numbered fifteen. The third and last ceremony is a big ceremonial feast served for as many people as the owner wanted to invite.

Traditional Acehnese basic units used for house construction were the jaroe (finger), paleut (width of the back of the hand), and hah (cubit). Secondary units were the jeungkai (distance between the spread-out thumb and middle finger), lhuek (length of the whole arm), and deupa (fathom). These basic units were heavily influenced by the ancient Hindu Javanese unit of measurement, which is still used in the construction of Balinese traditional houses.

Decline

Aceh Museum featuring the traditional Rumoh Aceh, in the background is a modern interpretation of the Cakra Donya roof.

Unlike the Balinese traditional houses, Acehnese traditional houses are mostly in the verge of extinction due to lack of supply of the required good timber for its construction and its impracticality for modern lifestyle. The most valid argument is perhaps an interest in change: people living in traditional houses are associated with poverty, compared to the seemingly higher status of modern people living in modern houses.

Several Acehnese architects had attempted to modernize the traditional architecture of Aceh. One attempt is replicating the roof canopy of the Cakra Donya bell into the auditorium of the State Museum of Aceh. These Cakra Donya roof reinterpretation, first innovated by Wim Sutrisno. The Cakra Donya roof has become popular in Aceh and can be found decorating the gates to hotels or for bus shelter's roofs. The gable roof has also been reinterpreted in many buildings, often with double gable screens, complete with protruding wooden screen.

See also

• Rumah adat
• Aceh Museum

References

Works cited

• Harmuji Jr. (April 10, 2015). "Rumah Krong Bade Rumah Adat Aceh" [Krong Bade House, the traditional house of Aceh]. Pesona Nusantara (in Indonesian). Blogspot. Archived from the original on December 29, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
• Hurgronje, Christian Snouck (1984). The Achehnese: Monographs in Anthropology. Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill Archive.
• Schefold, Reimar; Nas, Peter J.M.; Domenig, Gaudenz, eds. (2003). Indonesian Houses: Tradition and Transformation in Vernacular Architecture. Vol. 1. Leiden: KITLV Press. ISBN 9971692767.